Code is law
In cyberspace the software architecture regulates conduct as powerfully as legal code does in physical space. It often does so invisibly and without appeal.
Code
6 ideas
Four modalities of regulation
Behavior is constrained by law, social norms, markets and architecture. The four interact and can substitute for one another in governing conduct.
Cyberspace is not inherently free
The Net's early liberty was a property of its original code, not its nature. Different code can make it perfectly controllable and surveilled.
Architecture of control versus openness
Design choices about identity, encryption and traceability decide whether a network enables anonymity or surveillance. Architecture encodes a politics.
Regulability is a design decision
Whether an online space can be governed depends on choices engineers make. Technical design is therefore an inescapably political act.
We must choose our values into code
Lessig warns that leaving architecture to markets alone forfeits constitutional values. Society should deliberately embed its commitments into the code.