IGE105 – Communication
Technology in a Changing World
Dr. Ken Cosh
Week 10
Recap…
 Last Week
 We talked about the future of ICT
 Ubiquitous Computing
 Technology blends into the environment
 Technology is pervasive with touchpoints
throughout
 Augmented / Virtual Reality
This Week
 Originally the plan was:
 Politics
 And how ICT is impacting on politics
 But…
 So instead, Regulation
 Regulation in Cyberspace
But First
 Briefly,
 How has ICT affected Politics?
 Electronic Voting Machines
 Censorship
 Connection between politicians and
population
 Tweeting
 What else?
Regulation
 Lawrence Lessig
 Professor of Law and Harvard Law School
(previously at Stanford)
 Author of
 Free Culture
 The Future of Ideas
 Code and the other Laws of Cyberspace
The Laws of Cyberspace
 Lessig argues…
 The world is regulated by four
constraints




Law
Social Norm
Market
Architecture
Law
 Law regulates by sanctions ex-post
 Don’t pay tax -> Go to jail
 Steal my car -> Go to jail
 But while Law is an obvious regulator,
it is not the only regulator.
 You don’t always go to jail for not paying
taxes.
Social Norms
 Regulate behaviour by “what I ought
to do”
 I ought to wear a shirt (& tie), rather
than a dress
 You ought to sit and listen to me for a
while
The Market
 Markets through the mechanism of
‘price’ regulates opportunities
 Price dictates what I can afford
 The price also dictates what I can charge
for various abilities
 People would spend less on “The greatest
hits of Dr. Ken” than they would on
“Madonna’s greatest hits”
Architecture
 The architecture of the world
regulates our abilities
 We can’t see through walls
 We can’t come to class if we are in a
wheelchair
 We can’t fly…
4 Regulators
 The ‘real world’ is regulated by a
combination of these 4 regulators
 As we consider regulating the
cyberspace world, the same 4
regulators have an impact
Laws in Cyberspace
 Laws exist in cyberspace, and are
punishable
 Copyright law
 Defamation law
 Sexual harrassment law
 Behaviour is constrained by law, just
as in the real world.
Social Norms in Cyberspace
 Social norms also constrain
cyberspace
 Forum rules
 Banning / Kicking from chat rooms
Market in Cyberspace
 Prices in cyberspace also constrain
that world.
 We can access a wider market, but the
price still constrains us.
Architecture in Cyberspace
 It exists, but is different from the
architecture of the real world





Hardware / Software
Protocols
Password to gain access
Encryption
Tracking transactions
 We can’t choose whether to obey the
architecture (just as in the real world)
 Unless we are a hacker…
Regulating Cyberspace
 Cyberspace then is regulated with the
same 4 regulators




Law
Social Norm
Market
Architecture
Lets think about ‘Porn’
 A lot of people have raised a lot of
concerns about the amount of porn
available on the web.
 And how easy it is to access it
 Moreover how easy it is for minors to
access it
 But there is plenty of porn in the ‘real
world’ too
 How is it regulated?
Real World Porn
 Law: It is against the law for distributors to
sell porn to minors.
 Social Norm: Generally society looks down
on distributing porn to minors.
 Market: Porn is priced such that minors
can’t really afford it.
 All of these also apply to the cyberspace
world.
 So what about architecture?
Architecture
 In the real world.
 Fake moustache?
 Stilts?
 Deep voice?
 In Cyberspace
 Default anonymity
The Architecture
 Because the architecture of
cyberspace is different from the real
world, regulation of cyberspace is
different
 But there is no one single architecture of
the web
 Organisations / Governments have
choices about what architecture to use
Choice of Architecture
 What happens when you try to surf the web
at Payap?
 How is it different from my old university?
 If I encrypt a message, is it truly
encrypted?
 Or could the government read it anyway?
 What happens if I go to a website
considered ‘detrimental to society’ in
Thailand?
Choice of Architecture
 Can I host my porn site in the US?
 Or my gambling site?
 Can anyone see my drunken tagged
photos on facebook?
 Can I control who can see them?
Control vs Freedom
 Traditionally the web is considered a
free space
 But there is a choice of architectures
allowing control over that space
 Controlling Access
 Controlling Use
 Controlling Privacy
The Constitution
 A nation’s constitution then often
guides the architecture
 Architecture of Control
 Architecture of Freedom
 Consider the architecture used in the
US vs Burma vs China…
Encryption Software
 We’ll come back to discuss encryption again
later, but
 The ability to (or not to) be completely
anonymous in cyberspace is a big issue.
 It affects the regulability of cyberspace
 The ability for governments to regulate our
activities online.
 It also affects basic human rights
 Freedom of Speech
 Right to Privacy
Back to the “Real World”
 We have passports
 Travel is restricted based on passports
 Movements are tracked by passports
 Criminals are identified by passports
 In some countries the burden of
passports is greater than others
 Government policies to stop peasants
from flooding cities during famines
Cyberworld ID
 Consider having online passports
 Great!
 Catch the criminals with minimal burden on the
innocent
 Awful!
 Loss of freedom – complete government control
 What do you think?