| If
the Internet is a kind of parallel electronic universe, then it also
comes complete with new - and evolving - codes of personal interaction
and behavior just like the "real" world. And like the real world,
cyberspace will need laws to govern its virtual behavior. But, so
far, only a handful of jurists have stepped across the cutting edge
of this new frontier. Chief among them is UCLA Professor of Law Eugene
Volokh, who is helping to define the parameters of such legal cannons,
both civil and criminal.
"There are two theories about cyberspace law," explains Volokh. "One is it changes everything, and you have to really rethink law from scratch in cyberspace. The other is that cyberspace is simply a medium of communication and the rules should be the same as in any medium." For anyone who has followed Volokh's career, the fact that he's ended up on the forefront of his chosen profession comes as no surprise. A bona fide "whiz kid," Volokh took his first linear algebra classes at UCLA when he was 10 years old, entered the university as an undergraduate at 12 and graduated with a math and computer science degree in 1983. He promptly founded a software company with his father, became a commercial success, then entered UCLA law school, from which he graduated first in his class in 1992. Volokh then clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor before returning to UCLA School of Law as an acting professor in 1994. It was there he became fascinated with the changing landscape of law in the age of cyberspace. As he puts it, "It was a nice way of wedding my two interests - law and computer science." The crucial issue in thinking about law in cyberspace is what he calls the "presumption of continuity." In other words, without very powerful motivations, the law will treat issues inside cyberspace no differently than it does outside. "The basic principle is that there are good moral and practical reasons we punish certain kinds of behavior and not others," he explains. "It doesn't much matter what the medium is. What matters is the content." |
But the realities of cyberspace greatly complicate such a simple tenet. For example, take what Volokh calls the invisibility of geography. "Even before cyberspace, people did a lot of business across geographical lines," he says. But they knew what those lines were. And if there were different standards, for example, for what constituted obscenity in different geographic areas, the merchants could alter their business accordingly. "The trouble with the Internet," says Volokh, "is that often the person doing business doesn't even know where the material is going, where it's being downloaded." Such geographic invisibility could require the law to treat cyberspace differently. Other examples include trademark law. The fact that a Web site is accessible throughout the world can mean trademarks or copyrights in one country or locale could infringe on the laws of another, especially since copyrighted material is distributed illegally to millions of users on the Internet. These concerns are already dramatically affecting the recording and film industries, which stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars to international pirating. "Cyberspace increases dramatically the individual's power to infringe copyright," adds Volokh. Cyberspace, in fact, is impacting the legal system in virtually every arena. The way in which e-mail takes otherwise ephemeral conversations and leaves a potential electronic record is changing the future of litigation. "Smart lawyers already know to subpoena all e-mail that might be relevant to aW case," Volokh points out. Though cyberlaw is cutting-edge today, it will soon be a reality felt in every courtroom. "It's a rapidly changing field," says Volokh. "The law isn't changing as fast as the technology, which is good. But at the same time, the law is changing, and people who want to specialize in cyberspace law will have to work hard to keep up." - G.T.
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The Virtual Practice
"It doesn't matter what the medium is. What matters is the content"Eugene Volokh
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