Esquire In just a few short years, the Internet and the World Wide Web have become an integral part of society and business. E-mail is a common communication tool. People order books, trade stock, and book vacations over the Internet.
Web pages are often one of the first resources people consult in seeking information.
Yet even as the Internet has become an important part of society, there has been a sense that it is unregulated and free - free in the sense that normal governmental regulation does not, or can not, apply. But, as Professor Lawrence Lessig points out in his fascinating and thought-provoking book, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, that sense is wrong. The Internet can be regulated, and, indeed, will be regulated, in ways we may not realize or may not want. Written one way, that code might allow complete anonymity, written another way, and every move a person makes might be observable or traceable. Instead, he calls upon his readers to consider how the code should be structured to provide freedom and privacy in those situations where it is warranted, yet also provide a means of regulation where perhaps regulation might be needed.