IP: DOES CYBERSPACE NEED A CZAR?

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 02:54:13 -0500
> To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
> From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt () coil com>
>
>
> DOES CYBERSPACE NEED A CZAR?
>
> Lawrence Lessig, of Harvard Law School and Microsoft trial fame, has 
> written an important book on the future of Internet policy, entitled CODE 
> AND OTHER LAWS OF CYBERSPACE. Much talked about among the digerati, legal 
> professionals and the general public, CODE is likely to have a lasting 
> influence on the debate over regulating cyberspace -- and Lessig himself 
> is likely to remain close to the epicenter of proposals for regulation.
>
> Lessig's thesis? Lessig feels proponents of a hands-off policy for the 
> Internet have ignored the need to preserve fundamental "constitutional" 
> values, such as privacy and law enforcement, in cyberspace. And these 
> values would be enforced not by the self-regulation of the marketplace but 
> by political action based on our "collective will."
>
> Now for the irony. "I am not a statist," says Lessig. "I don't think the 
> best of us is given to us from top-down. There is a proper space for 
> collective life, and an important space for private life. A good 
> constitution helps us navigate that balance."
>
> In a new Independent Institute working paper, David Post of Temple 
> University Law School argues that Lessig fails to persuade. Among Lessig's 
> failures, writes Post, are his exaltation of group decision-making and his 
> unwillingness to accept the virtues of uncoordinated, bottom-up 
> spontaneous order as a means of allowing policy to develop in an uncoerced 
> manner in cyberspace.
>
> Read Post's paper, "What Larry Doesn't Get: A Libertarian Response to 
> Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," at 
> http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink2-9-8.html.
>
> For an informed view on why markets don't need the government to create or 
> maintain industry standards in cyberspace or elsewhere, see WINNERS, 
> LOSERS & MICROSOFT: Competition and Antitrust in High Technology, by Stan 
> Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis, at 
> http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink2-9-9.html.
>
> ###
>
> Excerpted via THE LIGHTHOUSE
> "Enlightening Ideas for Public Policy..."
> VOL. 2, ISSUE 9
> March 10, 2000
>
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