scholarly journals CYBERLIBERTARIANISM IN THE MID-1990S

Author(s):  
Jonathan Pace

This paper analyzes libertarian internet discourse in the mid-1990s, focusing on the events surrounding the passage of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which criminalized obscene and indecent content on the internet. During this episode, hackers, early adopters, computer professionals, technology lobbyists, and civil society advocates embraced a libertarian way of thinking about the internet and the state — a way of thinking I refer to as cyberlibertarianism. These groups had long-standing libertarian dispositions, although their anti-statism ranged from a left-libertarianism, concerned with concentrations of power in the state and in the market, to a civil-libertarianism, concerned with the integrity of constitutional protections, to a right-libertarianism, concerned with laissez-faire market conditions. In responding to the events of the decade, and following from their established dispositions, these groups converged on a libertarian narrative about the internet and the state. According this narrative, the state was overbearing, intrusive, compromised, and uninformed — and therefore a threat to the internet as a sphere of freedom, individualism, competition, and innovation. This libertarian narrative structured their arguments against specific acts of state intervention. In the case of the Communications Decency Act, they argued that the regulatory measure undermined the promise of the internet as a venue of free speech, an object of the free market, and a conduit for the free flow of information.

2011 ◽  
pp. 676-687
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Wheeler

Making the choice to be an Internet society is not a process governed simply by a state’s attitudes towards computers and the data that flows between them. Rather, being an Internet society means fostering the wide embrace of perspectives modeled on the technology itself. The basic components of designing an Internet society include a commitment to the free flow of information across and among hierarchies; a belief that it is best not to privilege any single information node; a realization that censorship is difficult if not futile; and a commitment to the idea that communities, companies and individuals have the right to represent themselves within electronic landscapes. All of these information attitudes have spill over effects in the real world. While constructing an Internet society is also about building information infrastructure and teaching people to use new tools, it is the clear spill over effects linked with the technology’s design principles that have most developing countries proceeding with caution. For many countries around the world, especially (semi) authoritarian ones, no matter how strong the economic incentives for being an Internet society are, politically and socially, accepting such processes of change without selective state intervention is uncommon. Nowhere are these interventions more apparent than in the puzzling mosaic of Internet led development in the Arab World. This article entertains a series of questions regarding emerging Internet societies in the Arab World: 1. To what degree is the Internet spreading in the Arab World and what factors are most commonly driving (or inhibiting) these processes of technological change? 2. In what way is the Internet contributing to processes of political change in the region? And how is the authoritarian state intervening to regulate Internet use in an attempt to control the spill over effects of such use? 3. What might be the longer term impacts of emergent Internet cultures in the region?  


2008 ◽  
pp. 1451-1462
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Wheeler

Making the choice to be an Internet society is not a process governed simply by a state’s attitudes towards computers and the data that flows between them. Rather, being an Internet society means fostering the wide embrace of perspectives modeled on the technology itself. The basic components of designing an Internet society include a commitment to the free flow of information across and among hierarchies; a belief that it is best not to privilege any single information node; a realization that censorship is difficult if not futile; and a commitment to the idea that communities, companies and individuals have the right to represent themselves within electronic landscapes. All of these information attitudes have spill over effects in the real world. While constructing an Internet society is also about building information infrastructure and teaching people to use new tools, it is the clear spill over effects linked with the technology’s design principles that have most developing countries proceeding with caution. For many countries around the world, especially (semi) authoritarian ones, no matter how strong the economic incentives for being an Internet society are, politically and socially, accepting such processes of change without selective state intervention is uncommon. Nowhere are these interventions more apparent than in the puzzling mosaic of Internet led development in the Arab World. This article entertains a series of questions regarding emerging Internet societies in the Arab World: 1. To what degree is the Internet spreading in the Arab World and what factors are most commonly driving (or inhibiting) these processes of technological change? 2. In what way is the Internet contributing to processes of political change in the region? And how is the authoritarian state intervening to regulate Internet use in an attempt to control the spill over effects of such use? 3. What might be the longer term impacts of emergent Internet cultures in the region?  


Author(s):  
D. Wheeler

Making the choice to be an Internet society is not a process governed simply by a state’s attitudes towards computers and the data that flows between them. Rather, being an Internet society means fostering the wide embrace of perspectives modeled on the technology itself. The basic components of designing an Internet society include a commitment to the free flow of information across and among hierarchies; a belief that it is best not to privilege any single information node; a realization that censorship is difficult if not futile; and a commitment to the idea that communities, companies and individuals have the right to represent themselves within electronic landscapes. All of these information attitudes have spill over effects in the real world. While constructing an Internet society is also about building information infrastructure and teaching people to use new tools, it is the clear spill over effects linked with the technology’s design principles that have most developing countries proceeding with caution. For many countries around the world, especially (semi) authoritarian ones, no matter how strong the economic incentives for being an Internet society are, politically and socially, accepting such processes of change without selective state intervention is uncommon. Nowhere are these interventions more apparent than in the puzzling mosaic of Internet led development in the Arab World. This article entertains a series of questions regarding emerging Internet societies in the Arab World: 1. To what degree is the Internet spreading in the Arab World and what factors are most commonly driving (or inhibiting) these processes of technological change? 2. In what way is the Internet contributing to processes of political change in the region? And how is the authoritarian state intervening to regulate Internet use in an attempt to control the spill over effects of such use? 3. What might be the longer term impacts of emergent Internet cultures in the region?  


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (04) ◽  
pp. 671-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN AARONSON

AbstractHerein, we examine how the United States and the European Union use trade agreements to advance the free flow of information and to promote digital rights online. In the 1980s and 1990s, after US policymakers tried to include language governing the free flow of information in trade agreements, other nations feared a threat to their sovereignty and their ability to restrict cross-border data flows in the interest of privacy or national security.In the twenty-first century, again many states have not responded positively to US and EU efforts to facilitate the free flow of information. They worry that the US dominates both the Internet economy and Internet governance in ways that benefit its interests. After the Snowden allegations, many states adopted strategies that restricted rather than enhanced the free flow of information. Without deliberate intent, efforts to set information free through trade liberalization may be making the Internet less free.Finally, the two trade giants are not fully in agreement on Internet freedom, but neither has linked policies to promote the free flow of information with policies to advance digital rights. Moreover, they do not agree as to when restrictions on information are necessary and when they are protectionist.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (38) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Carlos Buchain

 Intervenção do estado na economia e direito da concorrência Intervention of the state in the economy and competition law Luiz Carlos Buchain *  REFERÊNCIA BUCHAIN, Luiz Carlos. Intervenção do estado na economia e direito da concorrência. Revista da Faculdade de Direito da UFRGS, Porto Alegre, n. 38, p. 178-198, ago. 2018. RESUMOABSTRACTO texto trata da intervenção do Estado na ordem econômica. Considerando-se que o mercado perfeito é uma hipótese teórica e que o mercado apresenta “falhas no mercado”, o legislador constitucional autoriza a intervenção do Estado na economia. De um lado o Estado poderá ser agente econômico e explorar diretamente a economia, sempre que essa atividade seja necessária aos “imperativos de segurança nacional” e, de outro, o Estado intervém indiretamente na economia como agente normativo e regulador da atividade econômica. Analisa-se a possibilidade de intervenção do Estado na econômica em face dos princípios de livre iniciativa e livre concorrência. Enquanto a livre iniciativa representa a liberdade de produção e distribuição de bens e serviços, a livre concorrência representa um “princípio econômico”, segundo o qual a produção e os preços das mercadorias e serviços não devem resultar de atos cogentes da autoridade, mas sim do livre mercado. Entretanto, seja como agente regulador, seja como empresário, ao Estado compete garantir a eficácia da livre iniciativa e defesa da ordem concorrencial. A intervenção regulamentar do Estado na economia não o autoriza a agir contra o livre exercício da atividade econômica ou com desrespeito aos princípios da livre iniciativa e legalidade. Mesmo nas hipóteses em que a lei concede ao Estado liberdade aos seus atos, este está submetido ao fundamento da livre iniciativa e ao princípio da livre concorrência, sob pena de responsabilidade civil objetiva. The paper deals with the intervention of the State in the economic order. Considering that the perfect market is a theoretical hypothesis and that the market presents "market failures", the constitutional legislator authorizes the intervention of the State in the economy. On the one hand, the State can be an economic agent and act on the economy directly whenever this activity is necessary to the "imperatives of national security" and, on the other hand, the State intervenes indirectly in the economy as a normative agent and regulator of economic activity. It analyzes the possibility of state intervention in the economy in the face of the principles of free initiative and free competition. While free enterprise represents the freedom to produce and distribute goods and services, free competition represents an "economic principle" according to which the production and prices of goods and services should not be the result of acts of binding authority but of the free market. However, whether as a regulatory agent or as an entrepreneur, the State is responsible for guaranteeing the effectiveness of free initiative and the defense of the competitive order. The State's regulatory intervention in the economy does not authorize it to act against the free exercise of economic activity or with disrespect to the principles of free initiative and rule of law. Even in cases where the law grants the State freedom to act, it is subject to the principle of free initiative and to the principle of free competition, under penalty of objective civil liability.PALAVRAS-CHAVEKEYWORDSLivre iniciativa. Livre concorrência. Intervenção do Estado na economia. Responsabilidade civil objetiva.Free initiative. Free competition. State intervention in the economy. Objective civil liability.* Professora adjunto da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Doutorado em Direito Econômico na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Advogado.


Iuris Dictio ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Fernando Aguiar Lozano

The present paper analyzes the right to privacy in the context of the Internet. The multi-stake- holder initiatives are an alternative that has already provided a regulatory structure on various aspects of the Internet, be it security, free flow of information or online privacy. Although there are elements that make it not a total solution, this paper analyzes some reasons why online privacy should be regulated by mechanisms of Internet Governance and by entities that do not respond only to governments or only to private firms. In this work, a general look at this alternative is given, without neglecting other approaches that should be applied to the topic of online privacy.


Author(s):  
Dan Schiller

This chapter examines the Commerce Department's free-flow policy as part of its power over internet policy. It first provides an overview of U.S.–centric internet and Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force, established to launch an inquiry into “the global free flow of information on the Internet.” The inquiry's purpose was “to identify and examine the impact that restrictions on the flow of information over the Internet have on American businesses and global commerce.” The chapter also considers Commerce's commodification strategies based in part on data centers and the place of cloud computing services in the department's free-flow inquiry. It shows that the Commerce Department's free-flow policy was a major component of the federal government's overall efforts to keep corporate data flows streaming without restriction as new profit sites emerged around an extraterritorial internet managed by the United States.


2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeun-wen Ku

Globalisation, and its possible impacts, has been widely discussed and debated in Taiwan. The economic technocracies argue for globalisation, as a triumph of the free market and minimum state intervention, through measures of tax cuts, privatisation, deregulation, and so forth, as required to secure Taiwan's economic development in the future. However, rising unemployment accompanied by the new poverty requires more state provisions of social welfare. A strange policy orientation mixing tax cuts with welfare increases is proposed that precisely demonstrates the dilemma of the state between global competition and social reform. This is now a great challenge for Taiwan to balance economic and social requirements.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (08) ◽  
pp. 604-610
Author(s):  
Tanmay Munjal

Large scale censorship and control over the free flow of information on the internet that was already implemented on a large scale in many authoritarian countries in China in the past few decades has started to work its way through the more liberal and western countries including India, US etc. especially in the last decade raising concerns over privacy issues and the possibility of a dystopian future of tyrannical governments empowered by the use of digital surveillance technology to increase their power and make them essentially undefeatable on a level unforeseen in the history of humanity among many great thinkers in our era. In this paper, we wish to outline a method to not only combat but to completely eliminate both the possibility and current usage of all censorship and control over flow of information on the internet, hence heralding an era of free flow of information throughout the world and destroying practically all mind control that tyrannical governments can hold over their people, in essence ending the era of propaganda and tyranny from the face of this earth forever, using blockchain technology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1678-1682

I2P is an anonymous P2P distributed communication layer used to send messages to each other anonymously and safely. It is built on top of the internet and can be considered as an internet within the internet. Even though I2P is developed with an intention to create censorship resistant environment for the free flow of information, it is misused for illegal activities now a days. The possible misuses are less known among law enforcement agencies and existing industry approved software programs have no detection functionality for I2P. Because of the increased use of I2P in criminal purposes, there is a need for methods and tools to acquire and analyze digital evidence related to I2P. We conducted a detailed live memory dump analysis in order to find out the I2P related artifacts from a host machine. Furthermore, we propose a tool that will analyze the memory dump and system local files to find out the I2P related artifacts and provide a detailed report to the investigator.


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