Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World

"Who Controls the Internet?" by Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu offers a clear-eyed assessment of the struggle to control the Internet. Starting with a discussion of the early vision of a borderless global community, the authors present some of the most prominent individuals, ideas and movements that have played key roles in developing the Internet as we know it today. As Law Professors at Harvard and Columbia, respectively, Mr. Goldsmith and Mr. Wu adroitly assert the important role of government in maintaining Internet law and order while skillfully debunking the claims of techno-utopianism that have been espoused by popular but misinformed theorists such as Thomas Friedman.The book has three sections. Part One is "The Internet Revolution". The authors discuss the early days of the Internet through the 1990s, when Julian Dibbell and John Perry Barlow articulated a libertarian vision that gained wide currency in the public imagination. The Electronic Frontier Foundation worked to protect the Internet from regulation in the belief that a free online community might unite people and melt government away. However, Jon Postel's attempt to assert control over the root naming and numbering system in 1998 was short-lived, as the U.S. government flexed its power in order to protect its national defense and business interests.Part Two is "Government Strikes Back". Users in different places with widely varying cultures and preferences want information presented in their local language and context, the authors explain. Governments use a number of techniques to pressure or control local intermediaries to restrict Internet content that a majority of its citizens find unacceptable, such as the sale of Nazi paraphenelia in France. Of course, bad government begets bad policy: the authors tell us how China uses its powers of censorship to block dissent and publishes propaganda that cultivates a virulent form of nationalism. Yet, the authors illustrate how good government can work by showing how the contest in the U.S. between the RIAA and Kazaa ultimately enabled Apple's iTunes to emerge as a legally acceptable service that balances copyright laws and the public's preference for using the Internet to source and download music.Part Three is "Vice, Virtues, the Future". The authors present an interesting case study about eBay and its founder's idealistic faith in the inherent goodness of the Internet community; we learn that when the company found its business model severely challenged by fraud, a resolution to the crisis was made workable with the assistance of local law enforcement. According to the authors, eBay, the case of an Australian libel lawsuit against a U.S. publisher, and Microsoft's acquiesence to European Union (EU) regulation of its Passport service are examples of how the bordered Internet seeks to protect citizens from harm. They argue convincingly that as a communications medium, the Internet is not unlike other technologies that have come before and therefore the Internet is not likely to displace territorial government. Rather, it is more likely, the authors speculate, that cultural and political differences may be leading us into a technological Cold War where the U.S., EU and China develop their own competitive Internet platforms.The author's reasoning that issues of Internet law might be handled in the same manner as environmental laws at the international level brings to mind an argument made by Robyn Eckersley in her excellent book, "The Green State" where the pivotal role of the state in preserving the natural environment is asserted. While these two books might appear to be unfashionable to some by their emphasis on the state, in my opinion it appears that the facts on the ground support these authors when they suggest that government serves as the most amenable and accessible mechanism for expressing the popular will of the people, and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.I strongly recommend this engaging, intelligent and visionary book to everyone.

La imagen de internet se debate entre un estereotipo mediático popular que habla de su ilimitada capacidad autónoma y de recursos, frente a la realidad de las limitaciones y exclusiones con las que tropieza día a día que cada vez son toleradas y alimentadas como excusa necesaria para un desarrollo tecnológico, económico y social.En este contexto comentaba Juan Freire hace poco:"Internet ofrece un espacio virtual de libertad, autónomo de las autoridades del mundo físico."Y mientras el deseo de un espacio virtual libre y autónomo pueda ser genuino no hay nada más alejado de la realidad vigente. El espacio de Internet está sujeto cada vez más a normas, regulaciones, fronteras, que permiten la expansión de la herramienta pero también su adaptación a realidades locales. Las cuales desafortunadamente no tienen en cuenta únicamente los gustos o necesidades de un tipo de usuarios sino que se amoldan a necesidades de gobiernos o intereses privados generando prácticas represivas y restrictivas del uso de Internet. Es así Internet la que se adapta y no el gobierno de China acepta la libertad de expressión. Por ejemplo al punto de que la información facilitada por gigantes como Yahoo es la responsable de poner a disidentes políticos tras rejas.Si hay algo que hace bien el libro de Jack Goldsmith y Tim Wu, "Who Controls the Internet?, Illusions of a Borderless World" es eso, mostrar la historia de Internet y su relación con el mundo físico, las barreras regionales, nacionales y como se está modificando el desarrollo de esta comunicación cada vez más para acomodarse a imposiciones desde arriba y no responder necesariamente a los deseos de la comunidad de usurarios. El libro es muy recomendable en su análisis de la concepción de Internet y desarrollos y casos legales en los últimos años. Algo quizás no tan novedoso para aquellos que lleven inmersos en estos debates un tiempo. Pero en particular es útil para señalar a defensores simplistas de una globalización capitalista homogeneizadora como Thomas Friedman. Desafortunadamente el libro en sus conclusiones tiene una vertiente conservadora, y mientras Friedman es un conservador global e imperial, Goldsmith y Wu muestran un conservadurismo digital que defiende y anima las restricciones regionales sin ningún pudor e incluso desprecia el pensamiento de muchos de los impulsores de internet que buscaban un espacio sin fronteras, libre y diverso.Más: [...]

Goldsmith & Wu (2006) in `Who Controls the Internet', contrast the early expectations and ideology that surrounded the developments of the internet, with the reality of commercialisation and governmental control, shortly before and after the change of the millennium.By characterising the early ideology of the internet as free, undisturbed by physical location, government intervention and law and reflects the `hacker ethics', although Goldsmith & Wu do not use the latter terminology. Throughout the different chapters, each based around an example, such as Yahoo versus local law, the authority over the Root, internet crime and copy rights, they show that the internet is over the years brought under governmental and commercial authority. "The internet is no exception" as Goldsmith & Wu (2006: 153) argue, to other information technologies that have been introduced to us like the telegraph, radio and television.Besides illustrating their point, they also argue that there is some virtue in this development. Despite internets contribution to globalisation, most of us are still concentrated within local, language and cultural boundaries, have `different backgrounds, capacities, preferences, desires and needs' and are not interested in racism, discrimination, fraud, cybercrime and infringement of our privacy, freely possible in the early years of the internet (Goldsmith & Wu, 2006: 149). Commercial interests and customisation, and governmental law, in some cases globally imposed, show that regulation has lead to a more stable and robust internet.The strength of Goldsmith & Wu's (2006) book lays in this argument. Nonetheless, they do not forget to discuss the opposite side of governmental regulation and control, whereby internet is used as an extension to monitor and control its population.As with many books written about internet, reading this book towards the end of 2011, while it was first published in 2006, you might think it lost some of it relevant. In some respect it has. The technical development of Internet is not completed and new possibilities entered the scene since then, which might require adaptation and regulation. And I would encourage the authors to incorporate and extent their debate on privacy regulation with new examples such as, Google's Street View data collection and Facebook. As well as, extending the chapter on the Root, as although, the final authority is still with the U.S. Department of Commerce, ICANN supported the extension of web domain suffixes, enabling multilingual domain names and this might show some shift in power again. But despite this, the book is still a good read, well illustrated and structured and makes an interesting point that might be considered slightly conservative but realistically developed.Goldsmith, J. & Wu, T. (2006). Who controls the Internet. Illusions of a Borderless World (2nd Ed). Oxford, Oxford University Press

Despite being written more than a few years ago, this book establishes an objective, rational and well-argued perspective on the Internet as a privately-owned public space. It shows how various players (commercial and political) flex their muscles to bring influence to bear and how governments can (and can't) exert control. It provides valuable insights into the direction in which the Internet is still evolving.

This is a must-read for anyone who continues to subscribe to the myth that international borders do not apply to the Internet. This seminal work is written in a style that makes it accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike.

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