CYBERLAW ...... ((Mehran))

What is Cyberspace? Who Governs and is Governed in Cyberspace? How Does Law Operate in Cyberspace?

The law pertaining to the Internet both profoundly shapes and is shaped by the decentralized, rapidly developing, and even anarchic technology of digital networks. For example, in order to determine whether governments have employed "least restrictive means" in their regulation of Internet speech, reviewing courts must pinpoint the most legally pertinent technological (as well as economic and social) characteristics of the Internet -- characteristics that are often in rapid flux. Conversely, legal regulation of the Internet can exert pressure on technology, by imposing formal state-sanctioned liability rules that favor one form of technological development over another. This section begins by examining some of the legally salient technological characteristics of cyberspace.

This section also addresses some of the basic questions of who governs and is governed by the Internet. Internet technology and social organizations affect the nature of group identity and power-sharing (expressed through formal governments and laws) as well as individual social and political identities. For example, the Internet is arguably regulated as much by non-state entities (such as independent service providers or bodies that set technical standards) as it is by formal sovereign governments. Moreover, individual identities can be transformed through the anonymity, malleability and easy access to public space that are pervasive features of the technology. Private consensual arrangements among individuals and groups, whether by contract or custom, also substitute for formal governance mechanisms.

Finally, law itself is problematized by Internet technology. Traditionally, law involves a centralized sovereign actor that exerts power within its territorial boundaries. However, several features of the Internet combine to disrupt this framework: the instantaneous extraterritoriality of most acts, the lack of centralized power, and the fluidity of geographic or political boundaries. To a much greater degree than with other technologies, the design choices made by engineers will also act as a type of "regulation." This section thus concludes with some of the challenges posed to the concept of law by Internet technology.