Cyberspace Law: Censorship and Regulation of the Internet

It can be argued that the rules of the road for Internet users have evolved to reflect a balance between the untrammelled freedom sought by many users, and the demands of governments, parents, other users, corporations, and associations of equipment and intellectual property owners for greater control. However, this balance is being eroded by new technological tools for spying on, shaping, and censoring communications over the Internet to an unprecedented degree. This book considers how these technological controls are satisfying corporations' and governments' demands for greater predictability in Internet usage, even as the courts fight to guarantee minimum freedoms and privacy guarantees online. A series of key disputes about policing cyberspace have attracted wide coverage in the popular press and prompted hundreds of affected companies and trade associations to file legal briefs and distribute press releases. The book brings together a number of established experts in the field to critically analyse recent developments in online commerce and communications law and policy. The book offers an accessible and informative guide to these issues in several domains of internet law. These include: patenting methods of doing business over the Internet, and exploiting existing content in new ways on the Internet; efforts by patent, trademark, and copyright owners to enforce their rights online, and to compel Internet firms to monitor their online offerings and remove or pay for any infringements of others' rights; and the ability of the law to require or prohibit Internet companies from create a specific version of the Internet. This book has been written for students of law, communications, political science, government and policy, business, and economics, as well as anyone interested in free speech and commerce on the internet.