Boundaries and regulation of cyberspace

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Boundaries and regulation of cyberspace

The Cyberspace has become a medium through which people engage in increasingly sophisticated processes. Although it was originally developed as a means for government agencies to monitor defense-related research in academia, industry and military, now it has become much more. Private parties now use the Cyberspace which is usually called Internet to communicate between each other, for different data processes and transactions. The data, services, and applications in cyberspace flow across routers and servers that cover the globe. Internet has grown in visibility and importance economically, socially, politically, and culturally. And as the number of international transactions utilizing the medium has exploded, it is no surprise that governments around the world have begun to give it greater attention. In many cases governments have begun to pass laws and regulations seeking to control conduct and content on the Internet, within and beyond their borders.

Nowadays one-third of world's population is using Internet. By 2015, the UN's goal is to have 60 percent of the world with internet access - 50 percent in developing counties and 15 percent in the least developed countries. And usually these users are not divided by nationality, gender, race or sexual preferences. But does it mean that Cyberspace doesn't have any boundaries or it shouldn't have it.

Probably most of people will agree with different researches who saying that there are no such things as boundaries in Cyberspace. There are no international borders and there are no oceans to cross. Cyberspace is limitless when it comes to its reach. And many of the critical processes that we operate in our day-to-day-lives are now computer-based. So much of that we doing in virtual world occur over the internet and over publicly available networks. So the risks are now also in the physical world.

In «Law and Borders - The Rise of Law in Cyberspace», David R. Johnson and David G. Post (1996) saying: «While these electronic communications play havoc with geographic boundaries, a new boundary, made up of the screens and passwords that separate the virtual world from the «real world» of atoms, emerges. This new boundary defines a distinct Cyberspace that needs and can create its own law and legal institutions» [2]. So basically they saying that virtual world have some boundaries. But not geographical one like we used to know. And these borders can be both physical and virtual. It means that people «located» in Cyberspace is separated by computer monitors. Even with appearance of applications such as Skype or Viber users still don't have full effect of real life communication. Other boundaries are nonmaterial and usually created by users. People decided by themselves how much of personal information they need to provide freely available, what should they hide. Also as a delimiter in Cyberspace can comes out the governance. It determines which actions and processes in virtual world are legal, which are not. I agree with Johnson and Post opinion. For sure Cyberspace cleans up usual for us geographical borders. We can easily communicate with our friends, relatives and some random stranger in almost any part of world. We don't need to send letters by usual post, wait the answer, buy tickets on plane, get some visas and spend a lot of money just to keep in touch with people. Instead we can just open our laptop, login in and become a part of virtual society. Moreover different applications and programs make this communication for us even easier. By this I mean translation services which make communication between people who doesn't speak any common language possible. As removing of boundaries not only communication can be consider. It also includes plenty of services such as banking transactions, job employment, remote access to work materials. Now we can get a job by interviewing in Skype and work on some company in Germany staying at home in Ukraine. Other example can be services which provide access to the most popular and beautiful parts of our planet in real-time mode. But there appear new boundaries such as passwords, limited access to some internet sources due to its content. It can be some private information, government data or intellectual property. In some countries sources such as Yotube, Faccebook or free online resources with movies, music or books are forbidden. Another aspect which creates boundaries and regulation in Cyberspace is norms of behavior. Of course these norms are not the same as norms in real life. How we behave online is not the same as doing what we like in the privacy of your living room. And they differ from age, gender or religion of users. But for sure they have influence on regulating and boundaring of Cyberspace. And for my opinion it's very important for all of us to put our own borders using Cyberspace. We need to take steps to ensure that personal data is not accessible to anybody who does not have permission to access it. This includes date of birth and address, etc. We should be careful that our behavior and conversations on the Internet doesn't compromise us. Treat our online conversations as if we were talking with people in a public space where we can be seen and overheard, learn how to adjust our security or privacy settings in virtual world. Good boundaries are important for healthy relationships, but when it comes to our online lives, we rarely think to create clear-cut borders. The most important reason to set boundaries online is for our safety and protection.

About connection between physical location and regulating cyberspace Johnson D.R. and Post D.G. (1996) say that «the rise of the global computer network is destroying the link between geographical location and the power of local governments to assert control over online behavior, the effects of online behavior on individuals or things, the legitimacy of a local sovereign's efforts to regulate global phenomena; and the ability of physical location to give notice of which sets of rules apply. Net thus radically subverts the system of rule-making based on borders between physical spaces, at least with respect to the claim that Cyberspace should naturally be governed by territorially defined rules» [2]. At this point I can't totally agree with them. Because it will be wrong to say that government doing nothing and not trying to solves Cyberspace problems. There exist different ways of regulating virtual world. But unfortunately not all of them are implemented successfully and working as they need to.

For regulation of Cyberspace constraints described in Lawrence Lessig's «Code is Law» Version 2.0 (2206) can be used. And loss of location in Cyberspace in my opinion effects negative on this regulation. Maybe it's not influence on all four constrains, but they all dependent on each other and they support or oppose the other [3]. Because of it I think there is no constraint which plays the biggest role in regulating Cyberspace. All of them are important and plays unique role in Cyberspace behavior regulation. Law regulates behavior in Cyberspace in a same manner as it regulates it in real life. People are afraid of punishment or losing of money. The same as they dependent on opinion of others. Because of it people follow some rules and norm and this is how norm constraint works in Cyberspace. Also they don't want to spend more money on things they don't need in real or virtual world. So people don't use all possible resources in internet, but only the one can afford to. And lastly architecture regulates behavior in Cyberspace. In this context it presented in a form code. It controls our free, anonymous or authenticated accesses in the network.

So if there exist some techniques and norms of regulating Cyberspace it means that it should be regulated and governed. And these is there I disagree with Barlow and his «Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace». First I would like to say that it's very utopian and inspiring work. I really liked the ideas which presented in this article, but I can't say that they can be implemented and work in practice. For example:

«We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.

We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.» [1]

We have to admit that even in virtual world we still dependent on who or where we are in real world. We still have a lot of crimes coming from Cyberspace which need to be investigated and punished. And we can't do it only with self-regulation. We need some support from government in it.

Cyberspace is constantly crowing, provide new opportunities and open new doors for us. But we need to define which doors should we opened, which not. We need to put some borders in virtual world so it can't make damage in our real life. And with the help of government we need to identify this borders and how they should be regulate.

References

cyberspace security information

1. Barlow J.P. (1996) «A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace», Davos, Switzerland

2. Johnson D.R., Post D.G. (1996), «Law and Borders - The Rise of Law in Cyberspace», 45 Stan. L. Rev. 1367

3. Lawrence Lessig's (2006), «Code is Law» Version 2.0, Chapter I, V and VII, Basic Books

4. Frank H. Easterbrook (1996), «Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse», U Chi Legal F

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