Contact The MIT Press Information on how to order from The MIT Press Access your saved shopping cart, e-mail list subscriptions, order history, address book, and other info in the Your Profile area MIT Press Home Page


October 2001
6 x 9, 466 pp.
$43.00/£31.95 (CLOTH)
Short

ISBN-10:
0-262-02504-3
ISBN-13:
978-0-262-02504-1

Other Editions
Paper (2003)
Related Links
Available on CISnetOpen this site in a new browser window.
Find this book in a library
Table of Contents
Beyond Our Control?
Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace
Stuart Biegel

This book provides a framework for thinking about the law and cyberspace, examining the extent to which the Internet is currently under control and the extent to which it can or should be controlled. It focuses in part on the proliferation of MP3 file sharing, a practice made possible by the development of a file format that enables users to store large audio files with near-CD sound quality on a computer. By 1998, software available for free on the Web enabled users to copy existing digital files from CDs. Later technologies such as Napster and Gnutella allowed users to exchange MP3 files in cyberspace without having to post anything online. This ability of online users to download free music caused an uproar among music executives and many musicians, as well as a range of much-discussed legal action.

Regulation strategies identified and discussed include legislation, policy changes, administrative agency activity, international cooperation, architectural changes, private ordering, and self-regulation. The book also applies major regulatory models to some of the most volatile Internet issues, including cyber-security, consumer fraud, free speech rights, intellectual property rights, and file-sharing programs.

About the Author

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.


Reviews

"It is in systematically presenting to the reader an actual analytical framework that Biegel's book becomes highly recommended reading."
Jerry E. Stephens, Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies website

"I recommend for any instructors or researchers who need a popular reference to the recent legal history of the Internet."
Curtis D. Frye, Technology and Society Book Reviews

"... a study of Internet law that leaves no stone in cyberspace unturned ... Biegel proves to be a gifted teacher.... Biegel's well-researched and carefully organized text is one of the most comprehensive of its kind."
David McPhie, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology



Awards

Finalist in the 2001 Communication Policy Research Award presented by The Donald McGannon Communication Research Center.

Winner of the Dorothy Lee Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Culture presented by the Media Ecology Association (MEA).

Best Information Science Book of the Year, American Society for Information Science & Technology, 2002





See Other Titles In:
Computer Science and Intelligent Systems
 General
Economics, Finance, and Business
 E-Commerce & Internet Economics
 Regulation
Law
 General
 Internet
Science, Technology, and Society
 The Internet & Cyberculture
 
Join an E-mail Alert List


 
 
TECHNOLOGY PARTNER: Azility, Inc. TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | COPYRIGHT © 2009