Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Taking assumptions and flipping them completely

This note from the latest Harvard Law Review is exactly the kind of internet law writing I'd like to be able to do- taking something we take almost for granted (cybercrime is bad!) and turning it completely on its head (cybercrime isn't bad, it is a healthy irritant that improves our security against unanticipated catastrophic security events.) Really interesting article and well worth the read if you're interested in internet law or looking to see your assumptions challenged.

Unintentionally, this article demonstrates why I'm interested in internet law as an intellectual problem. Because the economics and social dynamics of our online interactions are often so different from our offline experience, our intuitions about what should work there are often very wrong. As a result, understanding those intuitions and attacking and inverting them is still very possible, very productive, and very fun- not settled like it appears to be in other places in the law.

[Image: A Chinese martial artist using his opponent's energy against him, from the Wikipedia article on Martial Arts.]

2 Comments:

Blogger Luis Villa said...

I wouldn't sweat it too much; probably no movie title has been more spoofed in paper and talk titles. I've certainly done it myself :)

9/28/2006 8:54 AM  
Blogger Kevin Wells said...

Oh no!

I can't wait to read this article more thoroughly, I'm pretty upset about the title. I just finished a paper about Disc Image Emulation entitled: "Self-Imaging Problems, or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the ROM." Yes, I know anyone can spoof Dr. Strangelove, but when I'm using it as a writing sample in such a related field, my quasi-original title isn't going to seem as unique if they read this Harvard Law Review article.

Well, indepdent creation doctrine, you are my new nemesis.

9/28/2006 8:56 AM  

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