BRIAN M.

JAVIER
EXECUTIVE CLASS IV-SET A
TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW
THRUSDAY CLASS, 5:30 PM 7:30 PM
ATTY. ROMULO DE GRANO JR.


CODE IS LAW

Can the cyberspace be regulated? This question was the opening statement of
the lecture of Prof. Lawrence Lessig from the Stanford Law School as he tries to
expound on the relationship between the technology and the law and how the latter
affects the former. If the cyberspace cannot be regulated, why should we be worried?
In the advent of the advancement technology, cyberspace or what we call the
computer world has definitely affected much of our lives and we cannot escape its
huge impact in the physical world where we are in. Since it has definitely become part
of our daily lives, it must be regulated like any other human activity, in order to maintain
the balance in our society.

There are four modalities that can affect the society which we call regulators
the law, the norms, the market and the architecture. The law regulates by way of
punishment, like when it prescribes penalties for certain crimes. The norms or the
unwritten laws of mankind regulates because it is what humans believe to be proper
and righteous. The market too controls us in a way that the goods and services that we
buy and utilize are dictated by the movement of prices in the world of commerce.
Lastly, the way that our structures are designed, or what we call the architectural set
up, affects us on how we move and live our daily lives.

The cyberspace, in itself, is a regulator. It is an architecture built for
communication. The internet, for example, facilitates data shipment as when a
particular sender transmits information through the cyberspace to the other end of the
line. It creates codes which are being matched so that the other end will receive and
understand the message that it tries to convey once it reaches the intended recipient.
Because of this process putting codes in the internet, it is hard to know where the codes
came from and from what source it was. This is why the cyberspace, if not regulated,
could be exploited by unscrupulous individuals and use it as a medium for crimes and
other forms of offenses, simply because it is hard to regulate something we are
unfamiliar of. It would be a necessity then, to maintain balance and order, to regulate
the cyberspace itself and the codes it produces within. It would be really hard, but the
advancement in our technology enabled us now to know who and where the codes
come from.

Every age has its potential regulator, its threat to liberty. Ours is the age of
cyberspace. It, too, has a regulator. This regulator, too, threatens liberty. But so
obsessed are we with the idea that liberty means "freedom from government" that we
dont even see the regulation in this new space. We therefore dont see the threat to
liberty that this regulation presents. This regulator is codethe software and hardware
that make cyberspace as it is. This code, or architecture, sets the terms on which life in
cyberspace is experienced. It determines how easy it is to protect privacy, or how easy
it is to censor speech. It determines whether access to information is general or whether
information is zoned. It affects who sees what, or what is monitored. In a host of ways
that one cannot begin to see unless one begins to understand the nature of this code,
the code of cyberspace regulates.

This regulation is changing. The code of cyberspace is changing. And as this
code changes, the character of cyberspace will change as well. Cyberspace will
change from a place that protects anonymity, free speech, and individual control, to a
place that makes anonymity harder or what Prof. Lessig calls relative anonymity,
speech less free and individual control the province of individual experts only.

We can only change what we understand. And unless we understand the works
of the cyberspace, it will be difficult to regulate it. This is why there is a need to regulate
it before it starts to consume us and affect our liberty and freedom. There are lessons or
morals presented by Prof Lessig in his lecture which he wants us to ponder upon. First,
the code is plastic, changeable and not a by-product of nature. In this sense, we can
mold it the way we want to. We can change its design the way it fits our society.
Second is that the interaction between the law and other modalities can beget bad
code. This is why he emphasized the importance of certain regulators and how they
must work together to control and regulate the bad code. Third is that a good law can
avoid the bad code. And lastly, the code is law, built into its design certain freedom
and responsibilities. The realities in life and the ideology in the cyberspace are related.
We cannot escape the fact that technology affects us in every way we live our life.
And unless we do something about it, we will all be slaves of it and our freedom will
soon be destroyed. It is high time that we realize that we control the code, and not the
other way around.