IP: The Constitution & The Internet

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

ASPEN, Colorado (Wired) - "Why should public values not have a role?," 
asks Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig about the building of the Internet. 
A keynote speaker at the "Aspen Summit 98," sponsored by Newt Gingrich's 
Progress and Freedom Foundation, Lessig acknowledged that "it would be a 
disaster for [members of] the government to become code writers....But the 
Constitution should have some effect on [the architecture of the Internet]." 
Lessig says the Internet rises above purely private enterprise to "world- 
building." He wants values to be protected and suggests not to do so will help 
erode confidence in government. Dissenting is John Perry Barlow of the 
Electronic Frontier Foundation: "Larry wants to make cyberspace safe for law. 
I want to keep law out of cyberspace."