Code & Other Laws of
Cyberspace
By Lawrence Lessig
Reviewed by Thuy Nguyen
November 17th 2005
Outline
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About the author and the book
Main arguments of the book
Model of regulation
Regulability in cyberspace
Applications
KM perspective
Conclusions & Discussions
The Author
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Currently professor at Stanford Law School
Taught at Harvard Law School and Chicago Law School
Bachelor in Business & Economics at UPenn
Bachelor in Philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge
J.D. from Yale Law School
Political view: conservative, then liberal
Expertise in cyberspace law
Works:
– Code & Other Laws of Cyberspace (2000)
– The Future of Ideas (2001)
– Free Culture (2004)
Main Arguments of the Book
• Cyberspace is not totally free & unregulable as
commonly believed.
• E-commerce pushes certificate-rich cyberspace,
by-product is regulability.
• Government helps this process by changing the
ARCHITECTURE (code) of cyberspace.
• It’s our responsibility to determine how the
cyberspace should be, as it would unavoidably
have impacts on our life.
Model of Regulation
Life of a Pathetic Dot
Market
Law
Architecture
Norms
Example - Smoking
• Legal constraint: under 18 can’t buy cigarettes
• Social norms constraint: no smoking in private
cars or homes without asking for permission
• Market constraint: price constrains affordability
• Technology constraint (architecture): unfiltered
vs filtered
Examples - Cyberspace
• Law regulates behavior: copyright law,
defamation law, obscenity law.
• Norms regulate behavior: talk too much in
discussion lists, your emails are filtered.
• Market regulates behavior: pricing of internet
services, or busy signals
• Architecture (code) regulates behavior: software
and hardware constrain what you can do
Role of Law
Market
Law
Architecture
Norms
Role of Law - Examples
• Discrimination against the disabled:
– Law barring discrimination on the basis of phisycal
disability (regulate directly)
– Educate children to change social norms (regulate
through norms)
– Subsidize companies to hire the disabled (regulate
through market)
– Regulate building codes to make building accessible
to the disabled (regulate through architecture)
Regulability in Cyberspace
Cyberspace uncontrollable – Flat WRONG
• Cyberspace is uncontrollable, given its current
status
• Commerce will change this, no matter what
• Government to take positive role: regulate
cyberspace through regulating its architecture
(code)
• West Coast vs East Coast regulation
Control by Opening the Code
• NOT equal losing control
• EQUAL open control
• Requires law making be PUBLIC and
TRANSPARENT
• Perfect control might not be possible, but
effective control is
Action Has to be Taken
• We are NOT ready for a new technological
revolution: lesson from collapse of European
communism
• WE need to make decisions
• Don’t let Microsoft & IBM decide what’s good
for us
• Start with “translation process”: translate realspace values to be preserved in cyberspace
Applications
Translation of Constitution
• The Trespass Law case
– Protects persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures
– Wiretapping: violation or not?
– No: there’s no physical trespassing, physical properties
protected
– YES: although no physical trespassing, privacy violated
• Preserve MEANINGS & PRINCIPLES, not
PRACTICES
Applications
• Intellectual property
– Technically possible to protect intellectual property
– Means: trusted system, private fences not public law
– Attention will shift to copy-duty, not copy-right
• Privacy
• Free speech
• Sovereignty
From KM Perspective
• Understanding what regulates cyberspace helps
us understand the framework in which
information, knowledge, and behavior are
regulated
• We can shape what will manage us in the future
• Future of KM can be either good or bad,
depending on our action, but there is great
potential for better KM if regulations are
transparent
Conclusions
• We are entering an era of great potential for
changing the cyberspace.
• We have to determine what change we want to
make.
• Objects in cyberspace subject to the same
regulators as in real-space
• Need to select what values to translate from
real-space to cyberspace
• All these are KM and shape the future of KM