Unfortunately, Barlow undercuts his notion of collective CyberMind in his Wired response. This recognizes explicitly that matter ultimately controls cyberspace. Anything that goes onto the Net can land on someone s hard drive, and might remain in storage long after the writer has changed opinion three times, gotten a new boss who dislikes boat-rockers, etc. Such concerns demonstrate that cyberspace constitutes a very solid, material object not a transcendent realm. Sovereignty, here, refers to the power of giving the law on any subject along with the power of punishment.
Jurisdiction refers to which individuals exercise sovereignty in each particular case.
Jurisdiction, a structural consideration, means more to liberty than the law itself, because stronger individuals make law for weaker ones. Strong individuals, with jurisdictional authority backing them, determine which entities qualify for inclusion in the human community, which are entitled to the benefits of citizenship, and which have the capacity to enter into consensual agreements. If cyberspace is institutionalized as its own unlimited sovereign, then its jurisdiction will grow at the expense first of other institutions, and if successful, at the expense of everyone outside of cyberspace. Hence Barlow initiates a new version of Marx s class struggle. We already sense such a regime in embryonic form.