Beyond Our Control?: Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace [Paperback]

When it comes to the Internet, many legalists look at this system of interconnected networks and ask, What is it? This topic is the theme of Stuart Biegel's timely and well-written book, Beyond Our Control? Biegel writes from real-world experience; he is an attorney and teaches cyber law at UCLA. While the lawyers and legal scholars consult case law and their legalistic tomes, Beyond Our Control provides non-lawyers with tremendous background on the issues now surrounding our legal systems and the Internet.

One of the questions the book tackles is whether the Internet and cyberspace is a revolutionary new medium requiring its own set of legal policies, or if it is simply an evolutionary technology that can exist under current legal regulations. The question is significant, as such differences can determine whether or not a song downloaded from the Internet is a criminal offense, who has jurisdiction when a threatening email is transmitted, and the legal nature of a distributed denial of service attack.

There is a common perception that the Internet is a like the uncontrolled wastelands of the Wild West, and Biegel uses the Wild West analogy to compare the Internet to movies such as Shane, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Cimarron. It is important to note that Biegel astutely asserts that it is generally agreed that the Wild West imagery of popular culture comes not from the history books, but from the western films. Beigel quotes historian Jim Kites, who describes the excitement that many find in the Wild West (and equally with the Internet) by saying, it is placed at exactly that moment when options are still open, the dream of primitivistic individualism, the ambivalence of at once beneficent and threatening horizons, are still open... For many involved in cyberspace (especially in the open source movement), they see the Internet as a place where such options are still open.

Yet, the romantic notion of the Internet has often run head long into the law. A main theme of the book centers on how to deal with P2P file sharing, such as MP3 files through Napster and Gnutella. For users, such a practice was considered an extension of their own music libraries; for the RIAA, it was outright thievery. This ease of use in downloading music caused an uproar among music executives and the ultimate demise of Napster as a corporate entity.

Yet while many perceive cyberspace as unregulated, Biegel shows that although there are not as many laws for cyberspace as there are for aviation, for example, cyberspace is nonetheless significantly regulated. Biegel shows how the Federal Trade Commission has transformed itself from a sleepy back-office establishment in Washington, DC, to a protector of consumers on the Internet. The book describes the success of the FTC in fighting cyber crime, which flies in the face of the non-regulated cyberspace myth. Biegel shows how cyberspace has been regulated in a very stringent fashion by the FTC and how consumer protection laws are working there. Biegel also notes that there are more U.S. laws governing copying in the online world than most people even realize.

The book takes a look at how the Internet can and should be regulated. The question of International law also comes up, and Beigel notes that some people believe the Internet isn't truly a global medium at all, but simply an extension of the United States. With that, the question of International law regulating an entity that is controlled by the United States becomes interesting.

My only personal criticism of the book is Biegel's use of the term Netizens to describe users of the Internet. Personally, I don't think cyberspace users should have their own taxonomy any more than those who use cell phones.

Although some readers of may opine that they have little value in reading about the current state of cyber law, I strongly recommend reading Beyond Our Control. Most of us may not be lawyers, but the topics in the book -- cyber-security, consumer fraud, free speech rights, intellectual property rights, file-sharing programs, and more -- affect us all.

I really like the examples and novel ideas for how to combat problems with lawlessness in cyberspace.

Anyone interested in the law or interested in cyberspace should get this book in order to see how some of the current issues are addressed and also to give a heads up on many of the issues that may or may not be troubling. I would recommend this to everyone, from the curious beginning user to the advanced internet user.

That's just what we need at this point, to throw in the towel and step aside as the State finds yet another way to trample the rights of the individual. Biegel has it totally backwards, now is the time to take a stand and ensure that the Interent becomes the beginning of the end of the tyranny of State intrusion into the mechanisms of the market and individual liberty.