The Internet, in all its freedom and seemingly endless power, has shaped and molded many facets of life worldwide. The fluid structure of many people working together can be molded and bent to fit any need or demand from every user. Entire communities of people are forged in a crucible of information, where people acclimatize into news feeds, posting rules, languages and new on line norms.
The Internet infrastructure is at times a generous giver of totality, freely distributing meaning, identity and information to all; bored teenagers in basements, presidents on wireless devices and armchair stockbrokers. The supposed darker side connects children with criminals and makes copyright felons out of dead women, 8-year old children, printers and 90-year grandmothers.
The information superhighway speeds along, daring anyone to try to stop it. A torrent of necessitated expeditious systems that the system of law itself relies on cannot, and will not, be simply switched off or shut down. The only option to change the dizzying super-structure seems to change the very parameters on which the structure is built. How would this change be implemented? Has it already been implemented? Does the seemingly tortoise-like bureaucracy of “Big-brother” have a chance to make such a change that this little brother won’t be watching him?
All these questions will be looked into through the following semester, and beyond.
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The one thing that I think is missing in terms of the law aspect surrounding anonymity is the First Amendment and the right to free speech. Without those rights, the laws put into the codes years ago could have been extremely different and set us down a path to more Internet regulation.
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