Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace
Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace
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网络空间法典和其他法律
DOI：
10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00435.x
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发表时间：
2000
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Mark S. Nadel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mark S. Nadel
《网络空间的法规和其他法律》，Lawrence Lessig著，Basic Books，1999,230页。正如雷切尔·卡森的经典著作《寂静的春天》在1962年唤醒了世界对环境污染的认识一样，拉里·莱西格的《洞察力代码》和其他网络空间法则(1)(代码)试图警告网络空间的长期居民，他们已经习惯了的狂野、不受监管的、类似20世纪60年代的环境面临着重大危险。代码挑战了约翰·佩里·巴洛等早期互联网英雄的假设，即技术创造了一个固有的自由环境，只有在政府放任不管的情况下，这种环境才能保持下去。相反，Code观察到，网络空间很容易被改变，对美国在线公民自由构成的最严重威胁不是法律，而是计算机代码--特别是那些旨在将网络商业化以进行电子商务的代码。《守则》解释了商界(在政府的支持下)让确认网络空间买家身份变得更容易的努力，也无意中促进了对其他行为的监管。莱西格特别担心的是那些公民自由和其他对美国社会至关重要的价值观，宪法的制定者没有明确的法律保护；当时的技术限制已经保护了他们。既然互联网和其他新媒体已经消除了对侵入性行为的许多物理和经济限制--比如跟踪互联网被浏览的每个页面--代码呼吁公民捍卫他们认为基本的隐私和其他价值观，以免它们被代码削弱--如果不是消除的话。事实上，电商友好互联网代码的推出有点类似于农产品的基因工程。正如欧洲人--以及越来越多的美国人--已经认识到的那样，操纵这些基本代码可能会产生广泛的影响，不仅限于他们的目标产品市场，也不限于国界。(2)这导致许多人要求就许多人所说的“科学食品”及其对世界生态系统和人类健康的影响进行公开辩论。虽然Lessig当然不反对电子商务代码，但他主张集体决策，在这种情况下，代码可能会对重要的社会自由产生重大影响。从经济学家的角度来看，Lessig明白电子商务代码的“外部性”--对社会价值观的伤害--太重要了，不能指望私营部门的代码编写者只在亚当·斯密的无形之手的指导下设计出一个社会最优的架构。相反，民主原则要求，在采用他所说的“西海岸[计算机]”的重要变种之前，(3)有可与采用“东海岸[法律]代码”相关的讨论相媲美的公开讨论。(4)关于信息社会想要允许多少控制权以及由谁来控制的决定，要求民主决策。怀着与政治活动家Jeremy Rifkin相似的担忧，Lessig恳求公民不要对商业市场的社会价值判断保持盲目信任，在商业市场的外部影响可能会被忽视，如果不是完全忽视的话，直到造成不可逆转的伤害。虽然《法典》关注的是互联网技术引发的问题，但它也讨论了技术与法律之间更一般的关系。代码观察到，有四种主要力量规范人们的行为：法律、规范、价格和技术(尽管它将后一种力量称为“市场”和“建筑”)。它解释了每一种力量如何限制个人的行动，这些力量如何直接或间接地在组合中发挥作用，以及技术进步如何显著改变对人们行为的复合约束。代码的中间三分之一完全致力于确定技术--主要是互联网--如何显著改变这四种力量对行为的净影响。…
Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, by Lawrence Lessig, Basic Books, 1999, 230 pages. I. INTRODUCTION Just as Rachel Carson's classic Silent Spring awakened the world to environmental pollution in 1962, Larry Lessig's insightful Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace(1) (Code) seeks to warn longtime inhabitants of cyberspace of a major danger to the wild, unregulated, "1960s-like" environments to which they have grown accustomed. Code challenges the presumption of early Internet heroes, like John Perry Barlow, that technology has created an inherently free environment that can only remain so if governments leave it alone. Code observes, rather, that cyberspace is quite susceptible to alteration and that the gravest threats to online civil liberties in the United States are posed, not by laws, but by computer code--particularly those designed to commercialize the Web for e-commerce. Code explains how the business community's efforts (with government support) to make it easier to confirm cyberspace buyers' identities also unintentionally facilitate regulation of other conduct. Lessig's particular concern is with those civil liberties and other values central to American society, that the framers of the Constitution left without explicit legal protection; the limits of the technology of the time already safeguarded them. Now that the Internet and other new media have eliminated many physical and economic constraints on intrusive conduct-like the tracking of every page that an Internet suffer views--Code pleads for citizens to defend those privacy and other values they consider fundamental, lest they be diminished--if not eliminated--by code. In fact, the introduction of e-commerce-friendly Internet code is somewhat analogous to the genetic engineering of agricultural products. As Europeans--and increasingly Americans--have come to recognize, the manipulation of such basic codes may have widespread effects not limited to their targeted product markets or by national boundaries.(2) This has led many to demand public debate on the issue of what many call "Frankenfoods," and its effects on world ecosystems and human health. While Lessig certainly does not oppose e-commerce code, he advocates collective decision making where code may have major consequences with respect to important societal liberties. From an economist's perspective, Lessig understands that the "externalities" of e-commerce code--in terms of harm to social values--are too significant to expect private sector code writers to design a socially optimal architecture guided solely by Adam Smith's invisible hand. Rather, democratic principles require that, prior to the adoption of important varieties of what he terms "West Coast [computer],"(3) there be public discussions comparable to those associated with the adoption of "East Coast [legal] code."(4) Decisions about how much control over information society wants to allow and by whom, call for democratic decision making. With concerns similar to those of political activist Jeremy Rifkin,(5) Lessig implores citizens not to maintain blind faith in the social value judgments of the commercial marketplace where externalities may be given short shrift, if not ignored altogether, until irreversible harm is done. While Code focuses on issues arising from Internet technology, it also discusses the more general relationship between technology and law. Code observes that four principal forces regulate people's behavior: laws, norms, prices, and technology (although it calls the latter forces "market" and "architecture"). It explains how each of these limit individuals' actions, how the forces can work directly or indirectly in combinations, and how improvements in technology can dramatically alter the composite constraint on people's conduct. The middle third of Code is entirely devoted to identifying how technology--primarily the Internet--is significantly altering the net effect of these four forces on behaviors. …