Lessig - The Internet Under Siege

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Courtesy of another mailing list I am on, an article from Lawrence
Lessig...

Cheers
David
The Internet Under Siege

Who owns the Internet? Until recently, nobody. That's because,
although the Internet was "Made in the U.S.A.," its unique design
transformed it into a resource for innovation that anyone in the
world could use. Today, however, courts and corporations are
attempting to wall off portions of cyberspace. In so doing, they are
destroying the Internet's potential to foster democracy and economic
growth worldwide.

By Lawrence Lessig

The Internet revolution has ended just as surprisingly as it began.
None expected the explosion of creativity that the network produced;
few expected that explosion to collapse as quickly and profoundly as
it has. The phenomenon has the feel of a shooting star, flaring
unannounced across the night sky, then disappearing just as
unexpectedly. Under the guise of protecting private property, a
series of new laws and regulations are dismantling the very
architecture that made the Internet a framework for global
innovation.

Neither the appearance nor disappearance of this revolution is
difficult to understand. The difficulty is in accepting the lessons
of the Internet's evolution. The Internet was born in the United
States, but its success grew out of notions that seem far from the
modern American ideals of property and the market. Americans are
captivated by the idea, as explained by Yale Law School professor
Carol Rose, that the world is best managed "when divided among
private owners" and when the market perfectly regulates those divided
resources. But the Internet took off precisely because core resources
were not "divided among private owners." Instead, the core resources
of the Internet were left in a "commons." It was this commons that
engendered the extraordinary innovation that the Internet has seen.
It is the enclosure of this commons that will bring about the
Internet's demise.

 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_novdec_2001/lessig.html

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