Book contents
- Lawless
- Lawless
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Part I A Lawless Internet
- 1 The Hidden Rules of the Internet
- 2 Who Makes the Rules?
- 3 The Internet’s Abuse Problem
- 4 Legal Immunity
- 5 How Copyright Shaped the Internet
- 6 Censorship
- 7 Lawless
- Part II A New Social Contract – Constitutionalizing Internet Governance
- Notes
- Index
4 - Legal Immunity
from Part I - A Lawless Internet
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2019
- Lawless
- Lawless
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Part I A Lawless Internet
- 1 The Hidden Rules of the Internet
- 2 Who Makes the Rules?
- 3 The Internet’s Abuse Problem
- 4 Legal Immunity
- 5 How Copyright Shaped the Internet
- 6 Censorship
- 7 Lawless
- Part II A New Social Contract – Constitutionalizing Internet Governance
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Technology companies are the sheriffs of what used to be the wild west of the internet. In the 1990s, when the internet was young, the imagery of the western frontier really seemed like a good analogy. The internet seemed to radically decentralize power: no longer could massive publishers or broadcasters control the media; anyone could be a publisher and get their message out.1 The internet seemed inherently designed to preserve the freedom of individuals. It seemed impossible to enforce laws against the apparently anonymous masses of internet users distributed around the world. The commercial internet grew out of a military design that avoided single points of failure and was resilient against both nuclear attack and interference by hostile governments.2
Keywords
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- Information
- LawlessThe Secret Rules That Govern Our Digital Lives, pp. 43 - 58Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019