lawrence lessig code and other laws of cyberspace

More than any other social space, cyberspace would be controlled or not depending upon the architecture, or 'code,' of that space. The book quickly began to define a certain vocabulary for thinking about the regulation of cyberspace. Lessig's 'Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace' was published in 1999. (A wise choice, as it is cheaper than printing the book in most contexts.) And obviously, you can also buy the book at the links to the right. You can download the full text in PDF form.

Reflecting the contributions of the community to this new work, all royalties have been dedicated to Creative Commons. The Wiki text was licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Lessig took the Wiki text as of 12/31/05, and then added his own edits.

Code is not just for lawyers and policymakers it is a must-read for everyone concerned with survival of democratic values in the Information Age.From the Preface: 'This is a translation of an old book-indeed, in Internet time, it is a translation of an ancient text.' That text is Lessig's 'Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.' The second version of that book is 'Code v2.' The aim of Code v2 is to update the earlier work, making its argument more relevant to the current internet.Ĭode v2 was written in part through a collaborative Wiki.

Lessig shows how code-the architecture and law of cyberspace-can make a domain, site, or network free or restrictive how technological architectures influence people's behavior and the values they adopt and how changes in code can have damaging consequences for individual freedoms. Commercial forces will dictate the change, and architecture-the very structure of cyberspace itself-will dictate the form our interactions can and cannot take.Ĭode And Other Laws of Cyberspace is an exciting examination of how the core values of cyberspace as we know it-intellectual property, free speech, and privacy-are being threatened and what we can do to protect them. Cyberspace will no longer be a world of relative freedom instead it will be a world of perfect control where our identities, actions, and desires are monitored, tracked, and analyzed for the latest market research report. Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig warns that, if we're not careful we'll wake up one day to discover that the character of cyberspace has changed from under us. Should cyberspace be regulated? How can it be done? It's a cherished belief of techies and net denizens everywhere that cyberspace is fundamentally impossible to regulate.

Lawrence lessig code and other laws of cyberspace