What larry doesn’t get code, law and liberty in cyberspace david post

title: What Larry Doesn’t Get: Code, Law and Liberty in Cyberspace - David Post —

code 2.0

Regulating Digital Technologies

• Lessig’s Argument: Politics and collective decision-making, rather than the market, should shape cyberspace to protect fundamental values.

• Alternative View: Individual, uncoordinated choice in the market allows for diverse values to emerge, and this is preferable to a single collective plan.

• MAPS Example: The Realtime Blackhole List (RBL) reflects a decentralized, market-driven approach to network policy, which the author supports as a valid method of decision-making in cyberspace.

• Commerce’s Role: Lessig claims commerce will lead to uniformity in cyberspace, but the author disagrees, stating the market tends to offer diversity in response to varying needs and preferences.

• Political vs. Market Decisions: Lessig views choosing among value-laden architectures as a political decision, but the author argues these decisions should not be left to collective, political processes.

• Linguistics Analogy: Like the evolution of language, cyberspace should evolve through individual choices, not collective control. Attempts to impose collective plans on complex systems, like language or cyberspace, are problematic.

• Suspicion of Collective Plans: The author is wary of collective decision-making and state involvement, arguing individual choices are more effective in shaping systems like cyberspace.

• Critique of Lessig: While Lessig acknowledges the need for constraints on collective power, he doesn’t provide details on how this power should be limited, raising concerns about the risks of centralized control in cyberspace.