[Cddc] CDDC Speaker: Code, Lovely Code – or the Three Wise Monkeys and European ISP liability

[jeremy hunsinger]

Distribute as appropriate:

1:00 P.M. the 29th of Sept.  in 527 Major Williams Hall

The Center for Digital Discourse and Culture is Hosting:

Chris Marsden of the the Oxford Internet 
Institute(http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/)

Speaking on:
Code, Lovely Code – or the Three Wise Monkeys and European ISP liability

Two types of code regulate behaviour on the Internet: legal code and 
software code. There is a third type which receives less attention - 
codes of conduct for intermediaries, including Internet Service 
Providers, and the terms of use for their end users, which deal with 
inappropriate behaviour on the Internet. It is this third type amongst 
'code, code, code' that this paper examines. In particular, it asks 
whether harmful and illegal content types can be regulated effectively 
by legal code or ISP conduct codes. If such codes are ineffective, or 
require such radical intervention into freedom of expression that the 
end-to-end principle enshrines, the paper considers software code's 
role in facilitating regulation. It does so by linking three separate 
content types that users rule inappropriate: unsolicited commercial 
messages (spam), malicious code (spyware and viruses particularly), and 
harmful or inappropriate content (typically unsolicited adult material, 
particularly for children). A regulatory response that institutes rules 
at either the network or user level to prevent these content types is 
increasingly urgent in broadband networks (including mobile). The paper 
draws conclusions for regulatory policy based on a European Commission 
funded study of self-regulatory types. Without such a unified approach, 
a regulatory model that is much less suitable for both network openness 
and freedom of expression is all but inevitable.

Two types of code regulate behaviour on the Internet: legal code and 
software code. There is a third type which receives less attention - 
codes of conduct for intermediaries, including Internet Service 
Providers, and the terms of use for their end users, which deal with 
inappropriate behaviour on the Internet. It is this third type amongst 
'code, code, code' that this paper examines. In particular, it asks 
whether harmful and illegal content types can be regulated effectively 
by legal code or ISP conduct codes. If such codes are ineffective, or 
require such radical intervention into freedom of expression that the 
end-to-end principle enshrines, the paper considers software code's 
role in facilitating regulation. It does so by linking three separate 
content types that users rule inappropriate: unsolicited commercial 
messages (spam), malicious code (spyware and viruses particularly), and 
harmful or inappropriate content (typically unsolicited adult material, 
particularly for children). A regulatory response that institutes rules 
at either the network or user level to prevent these content types is 
increasingly urgent in broadband networks (including mobile). The paper 
draws conclusions for regulatory policy based on a European Commission 
funded study of self-regulatory types. Without such a unified approach, 
a regulatory model that is much less suitable for both network openness 
and freedom of expression is all but inevitable.




Christopher Marsden is a prolific cyberlaw writer, researcher and
consultant, who joined the Oxford Internet Institute on 1 May 2004. His 
research at
OII focuses on cyberlaw and international political economy/Internet
governance, broadband mobile Internet regulation and policy.

His latest publications are at www.selfregulation.info as well as 
chapters
in 'Internet Television' (ed. Eli Noam et al, 2003) and 'Digital TV in
Europe' (eds Picard and Brown, 2004, with Monica Arino) both published 
by
Lawrence Erlbaum. He has edited the following collections of essays:
"Convergence in European Digital TV Regulation" (Blackstone, London June
1999, with Stefaan Verhulst) and "Regulating the Global Information 
Society"
(Routledge, 2000).


jeremy hunsinger
jhuns at vt.edu
www.cddc.vt.edu
www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy
www.tmttlt.com

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