Book details of 'Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information Infrastructure'

Title	Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information Infrastructure
Author(s)	Brian Kahin, Charles Nesson
ISBN	0262611260
Language	English
Published	April 1997
Publisher	MIT Press

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information Infrastructure':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
The international nature of the Internet often conflicts with national differences in law, social values, and public policy. Within national boundaries, local ordinances add another layer of discord. And many governments have been caught off-guard by the Net's explosive growth. Some concern and confusion can be attributed to laws developed for earlier forms of media and business transactions. The contributors to this collection of essays wrestle with the emerging questions posed by a medium that defies national boundaries in ways previously unknown and woefully unexpected. Among the issues covered are intellectual property, commerce, security, privacy, and censorship.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
It is rare indeed to find a collection of essays on a popular topic where each paper presents fresh insight, and all present a thorough analysis. However, Kahin and Nesson have managed to compile just such a set. Examining national and transnational issues and interests in light of the emerging global information infrastructure, each piece is informative and thought-provoking. In part one, the essays concentrate on examining how a legal system might function on the net. In "The Rise of Law on the Global Network," Johnson and Post jump completely away from the arguments about which country's legal system, all of them based on geography, should hold sway in cyberspace by suggesting that cyberspace is a separate "place," and should thus have its own laws. Volkmer examines a number of, mostly journalistic, considerations regarding global versus special interest in "Universalism and Particularism." The problem of law on the net is revisited by Reidenberg in "Governing Networks and Rule-Making in Cyberspace, with specific emphasis on the self-regulating nature of the Internet. It has become almost a tenet of faith that increased communication brings increased democracy: faith, because hard data was unavailable. In "The Third Waves," Kedzie presents and analyzes the statistics that prove the dogma rests on a solid foundation. In "The Internet as a Source of Regulatory Arbitrage" Froomkin points out what the US government has yet to learn: cyberspace in itself has the power to enable citizens of a given jurisdiction to avoid arbitrary fiats. However, the net is not completely lawless, and in "Jurisdiction in Cyberspace: Intermediaries" Perritt begins to investigate a model of a court or, at least, an arbitration system. Part two looks at issues of the conflict with geographic and political borders. Burk, in "The market for Digital Piracy," looks at the network technologies that work against copyright law, and the various economic models that might affect this struggle. Freedom of speech and the realities of moderate censorship are examined in "A Regulatory Web: Free Speech and the GII" by Mayer-Schonberger and Foster. Gellman examines the varied outlooks on personal privacy in "Conflict and Overlap in Privacy Regulation." As has been amply demonstrated in recent years, and as Barth and Smith point out in "International Regulation of Encryption," attempts to control encryption technology are fighting a loosing battle. Governments, strapped for cash, are now trying to make money off information they have collected and used to disseminate freely. In "International Information Policy in Conflict," Weiss and Backlund look at the various interests involved. In "Netting the Cybershark" (wonderful pun, that), Goldring looks at the slightly more personal topic of fraud and consumer protection in cyberspace. Legal minds, netizens, legislators, techies, and regulators will all find something of interest here. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998
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Book description:

"[This] book is a serious attempt to peer beyond today's conflicts to consider how best law may be applied to cyberspace, nationally and internationally." -- New Scientist Today millions of technologically empowered individuals are able to participate freely in international transactions and enterprises, social and economic. These activities are governed by national and local laws designed for simpler times and now challenged by a new technological and market environment as well as by the practicalities and politics of enforcement across national boundaries. Borders in Cyberspace investigates issues arising from national differences in law, public policy, and social and cultural values as these differences are reformulated in the emerging global information infrastructure. The contributions include detailed analyses of some of the most visible issues, including intellectual property, security, privacy, and censorship.