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
Welcome to The Lighthouse, the e-mail newsletter of The Independent
Institute, the non-politicized, public policy research organization
<http://www.independent.org>. We provide you with updates of the
Institute's current research, publications, events and media programs.
Copyright � 2000, The Independent Institute
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