Product Description

Lawyer and writer Mike Godwin has been at the forefront of the struggle to preserve freedom of speech on the Internet. In Cyber Rights he recounts the major cases and issues in which he was involved and offers his views on free speech and other constitutional rights in the digital age. Godwin shows how the law and the Constitution apply, or should apply, in cyberspace and defends the Net against those who would damage it for their own purposes. Godwin details events and phenomena that have shaped our understanding of rights in cyberspace--including early antihacker fears that colored law enforcement activities in the early 1990s, the struggle between the Church of Scientology and its critics on the Net, disputes about protecting copyrighted works on the Net, and what he calls "the great cyberporn panic." That panic, he shows, laid bare the plans of those hoping to use our children in an effort to impose a new censorship regime on what otherwise could be the most liberating communications medium the world has seen. Most important, Godwin shows how anyone--not just lawyers, journalists, policy makers, and the rich and well connected--can use the Net to hold media and political institutions accountable and to ensure that the truth is known.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1395683 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 426 pages

Amazon.com Review
Cyber Rights is an exceptionally rational and compelling account of the most explosive and controversial issues surrounding freedom in cyberspace. Author Mike Godwin is the well-known outspoken activist for online civil liberties and counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). He's been directly involved in many of the news-making cases and offers cogent analysis of very thorny situations, such as:

• Time magazine's infamous "Cyberporn" issue, which featured a flawed study and which many believe was at least a partial cause for passage of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (later overturned);
• the case of Jake Baker, a college kid who distributed his stories about rape and torture in newsgroups, which resulted in his computer being confiscated by police;
• the Church of Scientology's line in the sand regarding intellectual property and the backlash against Scientology in online debates;
• the libel conflicts experienced by Net journalists Matt Drudge and Brock Meeks; and
• Philip Zimmerman's (the programmer who developed the encryption tool Pretty Good Privacy [PGP]) fight with the Clinton administration to allow the use of encryption software.

Godwin is a natural teacher, carefully describing each event and explaining the issues surrounding it. Unlike many writers, he shows that he thoroughly understands the arguments for restricting speech. He then methodically takes the arguments apart, covering what is normally boring legal theory and explaining it in a lively manner so that readers are drawn into the story.

This book differs from other books on the topic in two ways: it's entertaining and it's a personal account. It's obvious that Godwin enjoys telling his stories, and he passes his enthusiasm on to readers. Readers also get a sense of Godwin's personal involvement as he describes his role in exposing the erroneous study that was the basis of Time magazine's "cyberporn" scare. In his chapter on the court decision that overturned the Communications Decency Act of 1996, it's clear that Godwin's work for the EFF is not just his job, but his passion. --Elizabeth Lewis

From Publishers Weekly
With an unusually broad view of free speech, lawyer and advocate Godwin, counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, brings his opinions to bear on a slate of Net-related First Amendment cases and policy issues. Citing examples ranging from the landmark Compuserve ruling, in which the court found that an Internet service provider was akin to a bookstore and not a publisher in its culpability for disseminating offensive speech, to the LaMacchia incident, a software piracy case that was ultimately dismissed, Godwin argues for less government intervention, displaying a Panglossian view of the Net's potential. In doing so, he frames nicely some of the issues raised by the encounter of the 200-year-old Bill of Rights and the cutting-edge Internet. But through much of his book Godwin sounds defensive, and his polemics often trump nuanced analysis. By the time he gets to discussing the notorious Time magazine expose on cyberporn, criticizing the magazine for buying into hype, his arguments have become predictable?or flimsy, as when he implies that the Net poses no new risks with its dissemination of dangerous information, such as bomb-making instructions, because libraries have carried such information for years. Godwin's book is a thoughtful examination of an important subject, but its thoughts seem too often filtered through rose-colored screens. Editor, Tracy Smith; agent, General Median.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA?Teens growing up with the Net aren't likely to find a better roadmap to the issues affecting their First Amendment future there than this book. Godwin is a pioneering advocate for First Amendment rights in cyberspace and, while this book is an impassioned argument for free speech, he effectively articulates "all sides" in order to make the issues clear. More than this, Cyber Rights reveals the Net to be a community with a human face. Recognizing that many people see cyberspace as marginal, unreal, and lawless, the author counters that image with history, fact, and principled argument. He consistently grounds his consideration of legal issues in human realities, relating his own experience, how virtual communities work (and are still developing), and how people have responded to similar challenges in the past. A fine storyteller, Godwin spins compelling narratives of cases involving issues such as censorship, libel, privacy, and copyright. Troubling "cyberporn" cases are described in all their legal and ethical complexity, and the author shows how the media and the public sometimes have been misled about the facts. He offers useful information about how these processes work and what individual citizens can do to guide them in positive directions. As new legal cases inevitably overtake the ones in this book, Cyber Rights will remain useful for its clear explication of the legal and historical issues underlying those cases?and for the light it sheds on humans in cyberspace.?Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Not rigid or bone dry
I meant to identify myself by name as the media critic and author above..I'm Jon Katz and have written both for Wired and Hotwired. Godwin understands very well how much of fight it's been for the Net and the Web to remain free. That alone makes the book readable and important. This kind of freedom is always a fight, and Godwin's book an important tool in that fight. And I'm not a friend of his. I've exchanged some e-mails, but never met him. It's a very important and valuable book.

A keeper
Possibly the best book on cyberspace legal and social issues I've ever read.

A retread of old news
Godwin's book is basically a rehash of previously published work. Pages 171-176, for example, were originally published in an Internet World column, though he acknowledges that nowhere. In fact, the entire book consists of such retread material spliced together, sometimes seamlessly, sometimes not. Many readers who haven't followed the free speech wars won't recognize this; they may simply wonder why the book is occasionally disjointed for no apparent reason. The other significant flaw in the book is that it stops with the CDA decision, in June 1997. For a book published in late 1998, it could have covered later material, especially since most of the book was cut-and-paste rather than new writing. It's a reasonable introduction to the censorship wars on the internet for readers which are completely unfamiliar with the history; but as for me, I'm pleased that I checked this book out from the library rather than purchasing it. -- Michael Sims