Code

By Lawrence Lessig

Subjects: Law and legislation, Electronic commerce, Conduct of life, Islands, fiction, Self-help techniques, Social aspects of Information superhighway, Right of Privacy, Cyberespace, Single-parent families, fiction, Commerce électronique, Courage, fiction, South carolina, fiction, Science fiction, Self-actualization (psychology), Right of privacy, Fiction, psychological, Computer networks, World history, Wit and humor, Aspect social, Droit, Ordinateurs, Electronic Commerce, Cyberspace, Children's fiction, Informationsfreiheit, Internet, Fiction, thrillers, suspense, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Gay men, fiction, Adventure and adventurers, fiction, Crime, fiction, Fiction, humorous, Social aspects of Cyberspace, Open access-publicering, Elektroniska motorvägar, Electronic books, Juridische aspecten, Fiction, horror, Fiction, suspense, Fiction, visionary & metaphysical, Fiction, thrillers, general, Intangible property, Autoroutes électroniques, Fiction, historical, general, Curiosities and wonders, Computers, Fiction, science fiction, general, Fiction, romance, historical, general, Fiction, war & military, Ordinateurs et civilisation, Freedom of information, Bullying, fiction, Friendship, fiction, New York Times reviewed, Information superhighway, Regulering, Liberté d'information, Poetry (poetic works by one author), Regulierung, Science, Droit à la vie privée, Fathers and daughters, fiction, Social aspects, Computers and civilization

Description: Although the book is named Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Lessig uses this theme sparingly. It is a fairly simple concept: since cyberspace is entirely human-made, there are no natural laws to determine its architecture. While we tend to assume that what is in cyberspace is a given, in fact everything there is a construction based on decisions made by people. What we can and can't do there is governed by the underlying code of all of the programs that make up the Internet, which both permit and restrict. So while the libertarians among us rail against the idea of government, our freedoms in cyberspace are being determined by an invisible structure that is every bit as restricting as any laws that can come out of a legislature, legitimate or not. Even more important, this invisible code has been written by people we did not elect and who have no formal obligations to us, such as the members of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) or the more recently-developed Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It follows that what we will be able to do in the future will be determined by code that will be written tomorrow, and we should be thinking about who will determine what this code will be. [from http://kcoyle.net/lessig.html]