Beyond Our Control? Confronting the Limits of the American Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace

This book provides a framework for thinking about the law and cyberspace, examiningthe extent to which the Internet is currently under control and the extent to which it can or shouldbe controlled. It focuses in part on the proliferation of MP3 file sharing, a practice made possibleby the development of a file format that enables users to store large audio files with near-CD soundquality on a computer. By 1998, software available for free on the Web enabled users to copyexisting digital files from CDs. Later technologies such as Napster and Gnutella allowed users toexchange MP3 files in cyberspace without having to post anything online. This ability of onlineusers to download free music caused an uproar among music executives and many musicians, as well asa range of much-discussed legal action.Regulation strategies identified and discussed includelegislation, policy changes, administrative agency activity, international cooperation,architectural changes, private ordering, and self-regulation. The book also applies major regulatorymodels to some of the most volatile Internet issues, including cyber-security, consumer fraud, freespeech rights, intellectual property rights, and file-sharing programs.

Stuart Biegel is a member of the faculty at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.