Cyberspace and our values

Lessig talks about cyberspace and how the changes in computer technology must be matched with changes in our laws or our values may be lost. He begins by speaking about liberty and freedom. He states that we build a world where freedom can flourish not by removing from society any self conscious control, but by setting it in a place where a particular kind of self conscious survives. We build liberty as our founders did, by setting upon a certain constitution. He tells us that by the word constitution he doesn’t mean a legal text but more of a way of life. They are foundations laid that structure and constrain social and legal power, to the end of protecting fundamental values. Lessig talks about how we can code cyberspace to protect or disappear values that we believe are fundamental. But what values should be protected there? What values should be built into the space to encourage what forms of life. He says that there are two values at stake, substantive and structural. These are the values that are entrenched through our constitution and bill of rights (freedom of speech, privacy and due process). There are four things that regulate and constrain our behaviors and values. Norms constrain us through the stigma that a community imposes. Markets constrain us through the prices they exact. Architecture constrains through the physical burden they impose. And law constrains through the punishment they impose. He spends a lot of time speaking of law and its affects on cyberspace. Some examples of this are copyright laws, defamation laws, and obscenity laws. They all continue to threaten ex post sanction for the violation of legal rights. Laws have a great influence on our lives and continue to threaten a certain consequence if it is defied.