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I remarked that since I had last been in class there had been a number of developments about digital intellectual property. The rock band Metallica had sued mp3.com to restrict the distribution of their music. RIAA (a trade group -- "Recording Industry of America Association"?) had won a preliminary battle with napster.com about distribution of music under copyright using the napster program. Many students knew about some of these developments.

I administered another version of the entrance questionnaire [PDF|PS|TeX] whose results are available. I finally showed a short videotape about cryptography (COMAP's Cracking the Code, about 15 or 20 minutes long, perhaps intended really for a high-school audience) which I tried to do on the first day of the course.

I discussed what the final exam would be like. I said that if people reviewed their notes for 2 or 3 hours they would likely not find it challenging. In the case of this course, the major purpose of the final exam is, to me, to convince my colleagues that this notoriously difficult material can be absorbed on a non-technical level. I told the students that I could imagine they were trapped (In an elevator? At a cocktail party?) with a professional cryptographer and with a staff member from a Congressional committee on communication, and that they were to try to understand and contribute to a conversation about the issues raised in this course.

I handed out the standard course evaluation sheets, and got a student to agree to collect them and return them to the proper office. I wrote the generous office hours that Mr. Radomirovic had agreed to hold to help people with questions. I made sure that everyone had copies of the three review sheets and concluded the last course meeting.

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