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Philosophy

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Apr 3, 2024

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TO: Dan Smelser FROM: Magdy Khalil DATE: January 18, 2022 SUBJECT: Written Assignment #1 Lawrence Lessig explains his philosophy and understanding in regards of cyberspace regulations in his book ‘Codes and Other Laws of Cyberspace’ which emphasis the Cyberpaternalisitic approach to the topic. Lawrence Criticizes the fact that the Internet is considered a sovereign entity without any implementations to the traditional legal laws, traditions, and system. Moreover, He warns that it could weaken the core values all humanity cherishes such as freedom of speech and privacy. In order to maintain our values and protecting the users of the internet, Lessig shares in his book four regulatory methods that can work with both cyberspace (fictional) and the natural physical world. Lessig demonstrates that Cyberspace will introduce ways of interaction between internet users in a unique way. The uniqueness of these interactions accompanied by difficulty to be regulated using the existing laws we use and implement in our normal physical and daily life. According to Lessig, each modality implements a limited set of sanctions for what internet users can do online. The four modalities are social norms, Network Architecture, The economy, & The Law. I. The Law (The Legal System): Terms of Use and The End User License Agreements (EULA) as an example with Blizzard play as the legal contract between the users and the company which declares the user’s duties, rights, & constraints. The EULA considered active once the game is loaded on the user’s Screen. The Terms take effect once the user sign up for the WoW online service. Those legal implementations govern all aspects of the game on a daily basis once the software, Application, Or the game are in use by the buyer. Also, the company reserves the right to erase, cancel, or suspend any account at any time without any further notice. It can also erase all the digital records as the company owns the rights and titles to everything you get while using their software. In real life, users are adhering to a combination of foreign and domestic rules which includes contracts, Land, & copyright laws originated mostly in the United States. II. Social Norms/Expectations: As Lessig explained in his book, “We must always adopt readings of the constitution that preserve its original values. When dealing with cyberspace, Judges are to be translators: Different technologies are the different languages, and the aim is to find a reading of the constitution that preserves its meaning from one world’s technology to another”
For illustration, the constitution of the United States as it applies to cyberspace. The social legal rights and norms that we used to such as our rights to privacy, freedom of speech, & the fair use of copyrighted materials. Those set of rights are much less clear in the online world. The founders of those rights didn’t know that such day will become when people cannot practice their rights during their daily online time. Lessig advises that in situations like this, the constitution should be formed in way to be adapted to the use of the online world with the intention to guard our rights as privacy and freedom of speech from being attacked or trespassed III. Network Architecture: The users are physically and digitally restricted by the network code that is built on and will only be available to navigate within the limits offered. Some other networks restrict the access to their website or a software by a password. According to Blizzard, the game code is the way it presents its fictional world and updates its configuration. However, that coding receives feedbacks and influences from the market’s behavior. IV. The Economy/ The Market: There was a significant decrease in the price of the game software while at the same time the popularity of the game is increasing. Despite the fact of the decrease in price, Players must pay a monthly fee in order to keep having access to the platform. The monetary value in the fictional (virtual) world is regulated by fictional gold which operates the game and regulates the behavior. It depends on how rare or valuable an item which drives the players to play extended number of hours to obtain it and adhere to the rules in order to obtain that item. Also, some players will team up to achieve the same goal. According to Lessig’s theory, Network Architecture is the most effective and efficient modality for regulating cyberspace specifically in terms of copyrights and the Economy modality for the Wow’s fictional world as per the compatibility to the online gaming nature. To conclude, it is difficult to regulate the cyberspace from four different angels with four different modalities which must work together to achieve positive results.
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