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    Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

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    The book discusses how computer code regulates conduct online similar to how legal codes regulate offline conduct. It argues that copyright law is challenged by technology enabling widespread copying and that code could displace the balance of copyright law and fair use if all aspects of use were licenseable. The book has been widely influential in discussions around law and technology.

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    Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

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    valicuinfo
    131 views2 pages
    The book discusses how computer code regulates conduct online similar to how legal codes regulate offline conduct. It argues that copyright law is challenged by technology enabling widespread copying and that code could displace the balance of copyright law and fair use if all aspects of use were licenseable. The book has been widely influential in discussions around law and technology.

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    cyberlaws

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    The book discusses how computer code regulates conduct online similar to how legal codes regulate offline conduct. It argues that copyright law is challenged by technology enabling widespread copying and that code could displace the balance of copyright law and fair use if all aspects of use were licenseable. The book has been widely influential in discussions around law and technology.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    131 views2 pages

    Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

    Uploaded by

    valicuinfo
    The book discusses how computer code regulates conduct online similar to how legal codes regulate offline conduct. It argues that copyright law is challenged by technology enabling widespread copying and that code could displace the balance of copyright law and fair use if all aspects of use were licenseable. The book has been widely influential in discussions around law and technology.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

    4-5 minutes

    Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (book) cover art.jpg

    Author Lawrence Lessig

    Publisher Basic Books

    Publication date

    1999

    Pages 297

    ISBN 0-465-03912-X

    OCLC 43836713

    Followed by The Future of Ideas

    Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace is a 1999 book by Lawrence Lessig on the structure and nature of
    regulation of the Internet.

    Summary[edit]

    The primary idea of the book, as expressed in the title, is the notion that computer code (or "West Coast
    Code", referring to Silicon Valley) regulates conduct in much the same way that legal code (or "East
    Coast Code", referring to Washington, D.C.) does.[1] More generally, Lessig argues that there are
    actually four major regulators (Law, Norms, Market, Architecture) each of which has a profound impact
    on society and whose implications must be considered (sometimes called the "pathetic dot theory",
    after the "dot" that is constrained by these regulators.)

    The book includes a discussion of the implications for copyright law, arguing that cyberspace changes
    not only the technology of copying but also the power of law to protect against illegal copying. It goes so
    far as to argue that code displaces the balance in copyright law and doctrines such as fair use.[2] If it
    becomes possible to license every aspect of use (by means of trusted systems created by code), no
    aspect of use would have the protection of fair use. The importance of this side of the story is generally
    underestimated and, as the examples in the book show, very often, code is even (only) considered as an
    extra tool to fight against "unlimited copying."

    Other books[edit]
    The Future of Ideas is a continuation of Code's analysis of copyright, where Lessig argues that too much
    long term copyright protection hampers the creation of new ideas based on existing works, and
    advocates the importance of existing works entering the public domain quickly.[3]

    Revision[edit]

    In March 2005, Lessig launched the Code V.2 Wiki to update the book with current information, which
    he then adapted into a second edition of the book, Code: Version 2.0, in 2006.[4]

    Influence[edit]

    The book has been widely cited, helping Lessig repeatedly achieve top places on lists of most-cited law
    school faculty.[5][6] It has been called "the most influential book to date about law and cyberspace",[7]
    "seminal",[8] and in a critical essay on the book's 10th anniversary, author Declan McCullagh (subject of
    the chapter "What Declan Doesn't Get") said it was "difficult to overstate the influence" of the book.[9]

    See also[edit]

    Cyberspace

    Digital rights management

    Government by algorithm

    Information society

    Free Culture

    Internet and Technology Law Desk Reference

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