Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace
by Lawrence Lessig
A review
by Holly Gunn

 
Part 1: Regulability BACKHOMENext

Section One sets the stage of control.  For Internet users who believe that the Internet and cyberspace will remain an uncontrolled arena of free speech, this section is a rude awakening. Moving from a definition of code to an architecture that can enable control and regulability of cyberspace, the scene is ready  for the forces that can change freedom of the Net and make it a regulable space. Lessig writes of two types of code.  One is the code that Congress enacts.  These statutes put in word how individuals, companies, and even bureaucrats are to behave.  He calls these government laws, or commands that come out of Washington, East Coast Code. West Code code, on the other hand,  is the code written by that computer code writers.   These are the instructions embedded in the hardware and software that make cyberspace work the way it does.  Often the two operate in their own domains and have little to do with each other; however, as the Net  changes to enable e-commerce, a  result of this change will be the ability to regulate the Net.   "When commerce writes code, then code can be controlled, because commercial entities can be controlled. Thus the power of the East over West increases as West Coast code becomes increasingly commercial." (Lessig. Code and other laws.. 1999. p. 53.) 

Just as other technologies, such as the telephones, televisions, and compact disc technology have become more regulated by the East Coast code, so too can the architecture, or code, of the Net change to be a more regulated space.  Control in cyberspace can be even more explicit if East Coast enforces a digital ID.  Digital ID could come in many forms from an actual ID certificate, which would could be cumbersome, to ways of identifying a person with a particular computer,  which partly now exists.   Market forces are very powerful, and when potential for profit is very great, it is naive to think that commerce will not exert a strong force to change the Net. "Market forces encourage architecture of identity to facilitate on-line commerce." (Lessig. Code and other laws.. 1999. p. 58.)

 

 

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