Regulating Code, review: A campaigning book

Editor’s Note: A provocative idea.

From: ZDNet

Summary: This is a serious and thoughtful look at how we might resolve the internet regulation dilemmas that have plagued us for 20 years. It’s a campaigning book — but in a subtle and evidence-based way.

By Wendy M Grossman for ZDNet UK Book Reviews

The early days of the internet were marked by a dualistic attitude towards regulation. The arrogant ‘technology-rules’ camp insisted that the internet couldn’t be functionally regulated, while the paranoid camp
feared that whatever regulation was tried would be damaging. Twenty years later, we still see these warring attitudes — often coexisting uneasily in the same people. Witness the debate that sprang up in response to David Cameron’s announcement a few weeks ago that he intended to push forward with nationwide filtering of objectionable web content. The weird thing is that both positions are true.

As Ian Brown and Christopher Marsden write at the outset of Regulating Code, we are entering the third decade of internet regulation. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it’s a reasonable contention. The internet began to reach popular attention with the 1993 release of Mosaic, which opened up the web, and the 1994 withdrawal of acceptable use policies barring commercial traffic. Although many of today’s battles have their roots in the very earliest online interaction, before that pair of developments there wasn’t much to regulate. After them, however, governments quickly became interested, and by 1996 the Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow was writing A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace to tell them that regulating the internet was none of their business. As Brown and Marsden write, few would now agree (and many did not agree even at the time).

Brown, now a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, is a long-time researcher and activist; his work is well-known to anyone interested in digital rights and the work of Privacy International, the Open Rights Group or the Foundation for Information Policy Research. Marsden, the author of two books on internet regulation and network neutrality as well as several others, was a professor at the University of Essex School of Law when this book was published, although he has since moved to the University of Sussex, where he’s been a Professor of Media Law since April 2013.

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4 responses to “Regulating Code, review: A campaigning book”

  1. Mikel says:

    Good informative book. I want to read it to get some information for my academic work on business. I want to try to make it on my own. If there are any problems or lack of information, then I will turn to dissertation services They always helped me out if I did not have time. There are no complaints about the quality of their work.

  2. Jacob says:

    Writing for science is an important part of the scientific process, so students are encouraged to practice it as much as possible. Whether they are writing a report for class or making a poster for a school science fair, this type of writing helps them to better understand science concepts. It is also a great way to get feedback and to share their ideas with others.

  3. Jacob says:

    Writiing for science is an important part of the scientific process, so students are encouraged to practice it as much as possible. Whether they are writing a report for class or making a poster for a school science fair, this type of writing helps them to better understand science concepts. It is also a great way to get feedback and to share their ideas with others.

  4. Rory Cockett says:

    Campaigning books can be a valuable resource for activists, educators, and community leaders looking to engage others in social and political causes, and can help to spark important conversations and drive meaningful change. By reading and sharing campaigning books, bibliophiles can be part of a wider movement for social justice and equality, and help to create a more just and equitable world for all.

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