What do you think?
Rate this book
Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World
Is the Internet erasing national borders? Who's really in control of what's happening on the Net--Internet engineers, rogue programmers, the United Nations, or powerful countries? In this provocative new book, Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu tell the fascinating story of the Internet's challenge to governmental rule in the 1990s, and the ensuing battles with governments around the world. It's a book about the fate of one idea--that the Internet might liberate us forever from government, borders, and even our physical selves.
We learn of Google's struggles with the French government and Yahoo's capitulation to the Chinese regime; of how the European Union sets privacy standards on the Net for the entire world; and of eBay's struggles with fraud and how it slowly learned to trust the FBI. In a decade of events, the original vision was uprooted, as governments time and time again asserted their power to direct the future of the Internet. The destiny of the Internet over the next decades, argue Goldsmith and Wu, will reflect the interests of powerful nations and the conflicts within and between them. Well written and filled with fascinating examples, this is a work that is bound to stir heated debate in the cyberspace community.
We learn of Google's struggles with the French government and Yahoo's capitulation to the Chinese regime; of how the European Union sets privacy standards on the Net for the entire world; and of eBay's struggles with fraud and how it slowly learned to trust the FBI. In a decade of events, the original vision was uprooted, as governments time and time again asserted their power to direct the future of the Internet. The destiny of the Internet over the next decades, argue Goldsmith and Wu, will reflect the interests of powerful nations and the conflicts within and between them. Well written and filled with fascinating examples, this is a work that is bound to stir heated debate in the cyberspace community.
6 pages, Audible Audio
First published February 24, 2006
40 people are currently reading
1189 people want to read
About the author
Jack L. Goldsmith
31 books32 followersJack Landman Goldsmith III (born September 26, 1962) is a Harvard Law School professor who has written extensively in the field of international law, civil procedure, cyber law, and national security law. He has been "widely considered one of the brightest stars in the conservative legal firmament."
Goldsmith was born in 1962 in Memphis, Tennessee. His stepfather, Charles "Chuckie" O'Brien, is widely believed to have played a role in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.[6] Goldsmith graduated from Pine Crest School in 1980.
He was a law professor at the University of Chicago when in 2002, he joined the Bush administration as legal adviser to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense. In October 2003 he was appointed as an United States Assistant Attorney General, leading the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft and Deputy Attorney General James Comey. He resigned in July 2004. He wrote a book about his experiences there called The Terror Presidency (2007).
Goldsmith graduated from Washington & Lee University with a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in 1984. He earned a second B.A. with first class honours, from Oxford University, in 1986, a J.D. from Yale Law School, in 1989, an M.A. from Oxford (which is not a separate degree, but an upgrading of the BA), in 1991, and a diploma from the Hague Academy of International Law in 1992. He clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1989 to 1990, and for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1990 to 1991.
He was a professor at the University of Virginia Law School before going to the University of Chicago Law School. He was working there in 2002 when he first joined the administration of President George W. Bush as a political appointee.
In 2007, Goldsmith published The Terror Presidency, a memoir about his work in the Bush administration and his thoughts on the legal opinions which were promulgated by the Department of Justice in the war on terror. His discussion covers the definition of torture, the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to the war on terror and the Iraq War, the detention and trials of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, and wiretapping laws. He is largely sympathetic to the concerns of the Bush administration's terrorism policies. He believed that fear of another attack drove the administration to its focus on the hard power of prerogative, rather than the soft power of persuasion. In the end, he believed the fear and concentration on hard power were counterproductive, both in the war on terror and in the extension of effective executive authority.
Goldsmith was born in 1962 in Memphis, Tennessee. His stepfather, Charles "Chuckie" O'Brien, is widely believed to have played a role in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.[6] Goldsmith graduated from Pine Crest School in 1980.
He was a law professor at the University of Chicago when in 2002, he joined the Bush administration as legal adviser to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense. In October 2003 he was appointed as an United States Assistant Attorney General, leading the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft and Deputy Attorney General James Comey. He resigned in July 2004. He wrote a book about his experiences there called The Terror Presidency (2007).
Goldsmith graduated from Washington & Lee University with a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in 1984. He earned a second B.A. with first class honours, from Oxford University, in 1986, a J.D. from Yale Law School, in 1989, an M.A. from Oxford (which is not a separate degree, but an upgrading of the BA), in 1991, and a diploma from the Hague Academy of International Law in 1992. He clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1989 to 1990, and for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1990 to 1991.
He was a professor at the University of Virginia Law School before going to the University of Chicago Law School. He was working there in 2002 when he first joined the administration of President George W. Bush as a political appointee.
In 2007, Goldsmith published The Terror Presidency, a memoir about his work in the Bush administration and his thoughts on the legal opinions which were promulgated by the Department of Justice in the war on terror. His discussion covers the definition of torture, the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to the war on terror and the Iraq War, the detention and trials of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, and wiretapping laws. He is largely sympathetic to the concerns of the Bush administration's terrorism policies. He believed that fear of another attack drove the administration to its focus on the hard power of prerogative, rather than the soft power of persuasion. In the end, he believed the fear and concentration on hard power were counterproductive, both in the war on terror and in the extension of effective executive authority.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
November 15, 2011
Written accessibly by a Harvard law professor and one from Columbia, this is the kind of "new history" that should probably, soon, become an essential part of our standard education about the world. It explains how the Internet came to be, why it failed as a truly borderless space, and how and why meatspace issues such as censorship, commerce, politics, and even warfare have begun to duplicate themselves in cyberspace.
Although published in 2006, this book is worth talking about now for two reasons. First, it's interesting. I have been studying power and coercion for a while, and these ought to be issues relegated to the physical world, a.k.a., meatspace. The body is the ultimate place of enforcement. Without the threat of pain or imprisonment, there is no ultimate consequence to lend force to a demand. The Internet's early popularity in the late 80s and early 90s was due in part to the recognition that cyberspace was different: there was no such thing as a painful consequence. When people organized themselves there, they did it anarchically, and the system worked because no one could aggregate disproportionate force.
Which brings me to the second reason why the book is important. The Internet's history ought to be taught in classrooms: it has founders, inventors, competing systems of governance, and international drama. For instance, the Internet's early anarchic structure failed when the U.S. government reasserted its rights to the root servers (citing that the Internet's invention in the 60s was funded by a DARPA contract). The reason was money. Capitalism. Now, it's an opportune time to mention that I believe that history, as a course of study, exists to give us perspective on why we do what we do, and why our environment looks the way it does; as opposed to just acting on guesswork, assumption, and blind tradition. And given this premise, I will also voice a supposition that if this particular history is excluded from public school curricula, the cause is not mere oversight. As long as the Internet is a cornerstone of U.S. commerce, its historical, anarchic roots are a threat to the cultural assumption that unregulated capitalism is the only route to freedom.
As Dave Clark, one of the Internet's founding minds, says: "We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code."
If you're reading this review, I'm guessing you spend a fair chunk of time on the Internet. As long as the Internet is a tool that consumes a great deal of our lives, influences our understanding of the world, and can fail or be forcibly removed from our lives, it is worth understanding--therein lies the ability to judge fair and worthy use from trivial, stupid, or malicious use.
Note: I may change my rating to five stars after finishing the book, but I have not yet finished digesting the authors' premise that the nation-state is in fact essential to the Internet's stability. From a pragmatic standpoint (which is perhaps the only relevant one), they are likely correct. But my bias is toward idealism, and I would yet like to find some possibility for a stable, long-term form of Dave Clark's manifesto in cyberspace.
Although published in 2006, this book is worth talking about now for two reasons. First, it's interesting. I have been studying power and coercion for a while, and these ought to be issues relegated to the physical world, a.k.a., meatspace. The body is the ultimate place of enforcement. Without the threat of pain or imprisonment, there is no ultimate consequence to lend force to a demand. The Internet's early popularity in the late 80s and early 90s was due in part to the recognition that cyberspace was different: there was no such thing as a painful consequence. When people organized themselves there, they did it anarchically, and the system worked because no one could aggregate disproportionate force.
Which brings me to the second reason why the book is important. The Internet's history ought to be taught in classrooms: it has founders, inventors, competing systems of governance, and international drama. For instance, the Internet's early anarchic structure failed when the U.S. government reasserted its rights to the root servers (citing that the Internet's invention in the 60s was funded by a DARPA contract). The reason was money. Capitalism. Now, it's an opportune time to mention that I believe that history, as a course of study, exists to give us perspective on why we do what we do, and why our environment looks the way it does; as opposed to just acting on guesswork, assumption, and blind tradition. And given this premise, I will also voice a supposition that if this particular history is excluded from public school curricula, the cause is not mere oversight. As long as the Internet is a cornerstone of U.S. commerce, its historical, anarchic roots are a threat to the cultural assumption that unregulated capitalism is the only route to freedom.
As Dave Clark, one of the Internet's founding minds, says: "We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code."
If you're reading this review, I'm guessing you spend a fair chunk of time on the Internet. As long as the Internet is a tool that consumes a great deal of our lives, influences our understanding of the world, and can fail or be forcibly removed from our lives, it is worth understanding--therein lies the ability to judge fair and worthy use from trivial, stupid, or malicious use.
Note: I may change my rating to five stars after finishing the book, but I have not yet finished digesting the authors' premise that the nation-state is in fact essential to the Internet's stability. From a pragmatic standpoint (which is perhaps the only relevant one), they are likely correct. But my bias is toward idealism, and I would yet like to find some possibility for a stable, long-term form of Dave Clark's manifesto in cyberspace.
May 29, 2013
An interesting and informative book that isn't afraid to examine some of the idealistic tropes of the Internet and puncture them with reality. It takes a look at what we believed the Internet would do, and then compares it to what actually happened, the whole concept of the Internet displacing nations being the central illusion destroyed. Not only does it show what happened, it explores the why through a lot of logic and following of trends not often applied.
I do hope they update this some time - this book came out in 2006, and a lot of its theories and examples may have more concrete evidence to back them up now; there were a couple places (like its look into eBay) where the changes since the book was published may bolster their arguments even more now.
I do hope they update this some time - this book came out in 2006, and a lot of its theories and examples may have more concrete evidence to back them up now; there were a couple places (like its look into eBay) where the changes since the book was published may bolster their arguments even more now.
April 4, 2012
I preferred The Master Switch. This book sometimes spent too much time explaining simple concepts. The most egregious example is pages 69-71 using five graphics and a real world metaphor to explain that governments can restrict/control web browsing by controlling the internet intermediaries within their own borders.
The book's persuasive and well-cited. It serves a good counter to the prevalent ideology that the internet transcends law.
The book's persuasive and well-cited. It serves a good counter to the prevalent ideology that the internet transcends law.
October 10, 2015
The narrative is very tiresome, as the authors insist on being self-referential to the extreme. Every other pargraph they will go "as we saw on chapter X" and explain concepts over again, which takes the reader for an idiot, as this is a relatively short book. The points are illustrated too heavily with limited examples, that sometimes get introduced in one paragraph and then used to prove the whole chapter. It's not a bad book, there is good content there, but it's not essential either. The central argument is very valid, but the idea that the US is some paragon of justice in face of the evil Chinese government is ridiculous.
September 6, 2007
It's not normally bad that a book has a point of view, but when it ignores all evidence that disputes its perspective, something's wrong. The first half of the book is pretty engaging and does a good job of telling the story of how the internet developed, but the second half is both dense and sometimes hard to read.
March 12, 2008
I just find any topic regarding the Internet fascinating, and this recounts its history and laws surrounding it...FUN!!
September 15, 2013
الكتاب روعة في سرد تاريخ حدود الانترنت وقدرة سلطة الحكومات فرض سيطرتها على الشبكة العالمية ! مليئ بحكايات ومحاكمات انترنتية
:)
:)
January 19, 2012
One of the great fantasies of the Internet era is that it would be beyond the control of states, of governments, of the dominant forces of the non-virtual world (‘meatspace’ as the Internet’s denizens used to call it) – but of course we only know that this was a fantasy with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight: during the late 1980s and through much of the 1990s when Internet was the domain of a few anything seemed possible. Sure, it was a hassle; in the days before Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) – the kind of screens we have now where we click on icons and the like – we used code, getting into our ‘Crosstalk’ systems (or whatever communications programme we had to let us ‘talk’ in real time with others) by writing oddly structured series of words, symbols and numbers, and relied on a myriad other terms and symbols to make ourselves understood. Other than long lines of code-soaked written communications, about the best we could do was get access to other databases (for some reason, from my desktop in New Zealand, everything needed to go through the University of Minnesota library before I could do anything else with our ‘gopher’). It was basic, and it was far from simple. The paradox is that as the system got easier (in large part, thanks to the democratising effects of GUIs) its governance and control got more difficult, where a big factor was quite simply that the bigger the Internet community, the more difficult it became to be self-governing and regulating.
This book does two things really well. First, it takes into the early days of Internet development, well before the world wide web existed, and give us a sense of the utopian vision of the scientists and engineers who both developed it and saw it as a zone of free communication and activity – while, ironically, under contract to the US Defence Dept (or, specifically, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – DARPA) – and their efforts to wrest control and governance away from the US government in favour of Internet users, most obviously in the mid to late 1990s. So, it is a very good history of the development of the Internet. Second, and equally impressively, it unpacks clearly the significant conflicts between the Internet-as-free-community ideology and the coercive powers of the state (or multiple states, as the case may be) while also pointing to the paradox that Internet’s existence and ability to do what it does (allow communication, facilitate commerce and the like) is entirely dependent on the secure foundations provided by states and their legal systems.
Goldsmith and Wu have the ability take what should, in many ways, be specialist and fairly dull legal and political science debates and make them clear and accessible, in part because they have the ability work with a telling case to build a narrative that exposes and reveals the central legal and political issues of their argument. At the heart of the case is the simple fact of state sovereignty, and the desire of states and their governments to make decisions that are seen (by those in charge, at least) to be in the best interests of those state and their peoples.
Implicit in the case, and to my mind the telling silence of the book, is that a (the?) key force driving this is the commercialisation of the Internet – as it became not only a thing that allowed business and trade to take place, but as it acquired value in and of itself. That is, as the Internet and World Wide Web it supports became both a producer and a thing of value and a generator of wealth. Had Goldsmith and Wu paid more explicit attention to this dynamic I suspect their emphasis on notions of ‘speech’ as the key tension in Internet policy and governance may have become more nuanced, but possibly not. They are, after all, lawyers, and a very large number of the cases fought over internet-related matters have been constructed as free speech cases, where in the US at least the issues become constitutional questions centred on the 1st Amendment. It may be that in other areas, this speech-based approach is not as dominant: for instance on British television on 18 January 2012, Marietje Schaake – a Dutch Liberal member of the European Parliament, and EU rapporteur for Internet freedom in the world (it really is her title!) spoke forcefully about the need for a common EU position as a way to ensure and assert European economic influence, while as Goldsmith & Wu make clear, in many respects current global approaches to on-line data protection and privacy issues are being determined by the EU’s legal frameworks. In both cases, these are essentially questions of economic and social policy, distinct from the free speech discourses that shape US- approaches.
The book is now several years old (originally published in 2006) but this is not a sign that its case has dated all that much. While I was reading this, many sites closed down for a day over the threats seen in the likelihood that the US Senate might pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect I(ntellectual) P(roperty) Act (PIPA), while many other site carried links to anti-censorship or other lobbying sites. Clearly, the tensions between ‘free speech’ and Internet governance are a very long way from being worked through, and as developments of increasingly national Internets in China and Iran show – SOPA, PIPA, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and a range of other state-driven approaches will continue to control and shape the increasingly pervasive bit of technology that is allowing you to read this.
Whether we agree with Goldsmith and Wu, that this state control is unavoidable because it is based in on-the-ground coercive powers (personal and corporate) or not, this is a superb outline of the issues and an excellent outline of the development of what we used to so unproblematically call cyberspace. (Check out my goodreads chum Sarah’s review at http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... – thanks for putting me onto this.)
Highly recommended!
This book does two things really well. First, it takes into the early days of Internet development, well before the world wide web existed, and give us a sense of the utopian vision of the scientists and engineers who both developed it and saw it as a zone of free communication and activity – while, ironically, under contract to the US Defence Dept (or, specifically, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – DARPA) – and their efforts to wrest control and governance away from the US government in favour of Internet users, most obviously in the mid to late 1990s. So, it is a very good history of the development of the Internet. Second, and equally impressively, it unpacks clearly the significant conflicts between the Internet-as-free-community ideology and the coercive powers of the state (or multiple states, as the case may be) while also pointing to the paradox that Internet’s existence and ability to do what it does (allow communication, facilitate commerce and the like) is entirely dependent on the secure foundations provided by states and their legal systems.
Goldsmith and Wu have the ability take what should, in many ways, be specialist and fairly dull legal and political science debates and make them clear and accessible, in part because they have the ability work with a telling case to build a narrative that exposes and reveals the central legal and political issues of their argument. At the heart of the case is the simple fact of state sovereignty, and the desire of states and their governments to make decisions that are seen (by those in charge, at least) to be in the best interests of those state and their peoples.
Implicit in the case, and to my mind the telling silence of the book, is that a (the?) key force driving this is the commercialisation of the Internet – as it became not only a thing that allowed business and trade to take place, but as it acquired value in and of itself. That is, as the Internet and World Wide Web it supports became both a producer and a thing of value and a generator of wealth. Had Goldsmith and Wu paid more explicit attention to this dynamic I suspect their emphasis on notions of ‘speech’ as the key tension in Internet policy and governance may have become more nuanced, but possibly not. They are, after all, lawyers, and a very large number of the cases fought over internet-related matters have been constructed as free speech cases, where in the US at least the issues become constitutional questions centred on the 1st Amendment. It may be that in other areas, this speech-based approach is not as dominant: for instance on British television on 18 January 2012, Marietje Schaake – a Dutch Liberal member of the European Parliament, and EU rapporteur for Internet freedom in the world (it really is her title!) spoke forcefully about the need for a common EU position as a way to ensure and assert European economic influence, while as Goldsmith & Wu make clear, in many respects current global approaches to on-line data protection and privacy issues are being determined by the EU’s legal frameworks. In both cases, these are essentially questions of economic and social policy, distinct from the free speech discourses that shape US- approaches.
The book is now several years old (originally published in 2006) but this is not a sign that its case has dated all that much. While I was reading this, many sites closed down for a day over the threats seen in the likelihood that the US Senate might pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect I(ntellectual) P(roperty) Act (PIPA), while many other site carried links to anti-censorship or other lobbying sites. Clearly, the tensions between ‘free speech’ and Internet governance are a very long way from being worked through, and as developments of increasingly national Internets in China and Iran show – SOPA, PIPA, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and a range of other state-driven approaches will continue to control and shape the increasingly pervasive bit of technology that is allowing you to read this.
Whether we agree with Goldsmith and Wu, that this state control is unavoidable because it is based in on-the-ground coercive powers (personal and corporate) or not, this is a superb outline of the issues and an excellent outline of the development of what we used to so unproblematically call cyberspace. (Check out my goodreads chum Sarah’s review at http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... – thanks for putting me onto this.)
Highly recommended!
October 2, 2021
Interesting. A lot of things I knew already and some things I didn’t. Also, the way it’s written it was not very engaging to me. There’s also some false information too. Understand that, when I rate something 3 or 4 stars that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, it just wasn’t an amazing engaging book.
The only 2 things I noticed that weren’t factual are below. They’re in part 3 of the book.
Skype was not the first “Internet Phone” there was a product long before Skype called Internet Phone. You could even register with affiliated providers and use it to make landline calls. I know, because I had it. That was the beginning of playing with VoIP for me.
The story about eBay being founded because the founder’s wife wanted to meet collectors of Pez dispensers was a made up story by eBay’s marketing department. Another book I read even bad a quote from the responsible party admitting to it.
Otherwise it
The only 2 things I noticed that weren’t factual are below. They’re in part 3 of the book.
Skype was not the first “Internet Phone” there was a product long before Skype called Internet Phone. You could even register with affiliated providers and use it to make landline calls. I know, because I had it. That was the beginning of playing with VoIP for me.
The story about eBay being founded because the founder’s wife wanted to meet collectors of Pez dispensers was a made up story by eBay’s marketing department. Another book I read even bad a quote from the responsible party admitting to it.
Otherwise it
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2023
Having now read all 4 of Tim Wu’s books, and while I’m still a stan, most of them, this not excluded, could (and should) have been law review articles. I say this not to detract from the value of the ideas Wu (& here, Goldsmith) raise. They were quite prescient in their tamping of consensus optimism that the internet would be a great liberator and equalizer. Their proposal of a decentralized internet has been vindicated, and their Hobbesian view of modern humanity (and its liberal desire for security and uneven value systems) has largely proved correct, looking back in 2023 at the many, highly-surveilled internets we exist surrounded by.
Read
November 10, 2010Who Controls the Internet, by Jack L. Goldsmith and Tim Wu, tells about the history of the internet and how the development of the internet brought battles between governments around the world. The introduction begins with the story of the Yahoo case in 2000, which involved the illegal postings of Nazi paraphernalia on Yahoo servers and how that stirred a fight between Yahoo and the French government. The first part of the book, called The Internet Revolution, talks about the founders of the internet and the struggles among individuals, independent engineering groups, and the United States government, all with a purpose to gain control of the internet. In part 2 of the book, Wu and Goldsmith strongly stress the importance of government control and its role in internet growth. They elaborate on the influence of geography and how borders are established. The third part of the book reveals the associates and assets of government control. Goldsmith and Wu conclude the book by expressing that geography, nations that have different ways of living, and government force, have all been essential to the development of the internet. And finally, the authors explicate that the future of the internet will be built by powerful nations, and the states that protect their way of life.
Tim Wu, the co-author of Who Controls the Internet?, is a professor at Columbia Law School, the chairman of media reform organization Free Press, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He graduated from McGill University and Harvard Law School. In 2006, he was recognized as one of the top 50 leaders in science and technology by Scientific American magazine. The next year, Wu
was accounted for one of Harvard's 100 most influential graduates in 02138 Magazine. Tim Wu has written about copyright, international trade, and the study of law-breaking (timwu.org/bio.html).
Jack L. Goldsmith, the other author of Who Controls the Internet?, is a Professor at Harvard Law School. Currently, he has a J.D. from Yale Law School, a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University, and a B.A. from Washington and Lee University (econclubmemphis.org/speakers/goldsmit....). His areas of interest in research include, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Foreign Relations Law, and more. Before pending to Harvard University, he served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel for the Department of Justice.
The main arguments of this book are that: (1) government control is important to the growth of the internet; (2) geographical divisions distinguish regions by daily lifestyles and are essential for the efficiency of the internet; (3) the future of the internet will be directed by the power of nations and their efforts to shape the internet of what they desire it to be. The first point made by the authors relate to contemporary life today, because they are arguing that without government control, the internet would be a mess. For example, if there was no government regulating the internet, private companies such as EBay, would be conquered by villains (Goldsmith and Wu 140). Similarly, today’s society would be same if there was no government regulation. Criminals would be robbing banks, vandalism would be everywhere, and traffic would be very dangerous. The second argument explains that the borders of the world are determined by differences in everyday lives, such as daily needs, language, culture, etc., and that all of this is important for the internet to work proficiently. Outside the internet world, each nation is divided by many different factors, including laws, and cultural differences. This is what makes up each country and what makes them unique. It is the desires of how people want to live their lives and being able to do so, allows everyone to be happy and reduces conflicts within different regions. In other words, divisions make the world a more efficient whole. Of course the whole world can’t always get along. There are still many debates among nations, and the race to power is constantly happening. That is why the idea that the future of the internet will be determined by powerful nations and their desires, connects back to contemporary life today. There is war even going on right now, because nations disagree on who gets control and how they want to go about taking control.
Who controls the internet? is overall a very powerful and detailed book. Personally, it was very difficult to follow; however, once I interpreted the text, I realized that the authors had an excellent stance. Their main audience is directed towards college students and generally an older audience, so this book may be difficult for the younger crowd to read. They provide many strong examples throughout the book to support their arguments, as well as provide ones that are interesting. The authors frequently pull in the reader by relating to them through stories such as the development of virtual communities and things like Facebook. The one problem I did notice was that the book goes too much in depth with explaining stories/case studies. It starts to distract the reader from the main focus. Other than that, this book is especially influential and will leave any reader questioning.
Works Cited
Biography - Tim Wu." Tim Wu's Home Page. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. .
Goldsmith Bio." Economic Club of Memphis --- Intro Page... Web. 15 Oct. 2010.
.
Tim Wu, the co-author of Who Controls the Internet?, is a professor at Columbia Law School, the chairman of media reform organization Free Press, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He graduated from McGill University and Harvard Law School. In 2006, he was recognized as one of the top 50 leaders in science and technology by Scientific American magazine. The next year, Wu
was accounted for one of Harvard's 100 most influential graduates in 02138 Magazine. Tim Wu has written about copyright, international trade, and the study of law-breaking (timwu.org/bio.html).
Jack L. Goldsmith, the other author of Who Controls the Internet?, is a Professor at Harvard Law School. Currently, he has a J.D. from Yale Law School, a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University, and a B.A. from Washington and Lee University (econclubmemphis.org/speakers/goldsmit....). His areas of interest in research include, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Foreign Relations Law, and more. Before pending to Harvard University, he served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel for the Department of Justice.
The main arguments of this book are that: (1) government control is important to the growth of the internet; (2) geographical divisions distinguish regions by daily lifestyles and are essential for the efficiency of the internet; (3) the future of the internet will be directed by the power of nations and their efforts to shape the internet of what they desire it to be. The first point made by the authors relate to contemporary life today, because they are arguing that without government control, the internet would be a mess. For example, if there was no government regulating the internet, private companies such as EBay, would be conquered by villains (Goldsmith and Wu 140). Similarly, today’s society would be same if there was no government regulation. Criminals would be robbing banks, vandalism would be everywhere, and traffic would be very dangerous. The second argument explains that the borders of the world are determined by differences in everyday lives, such as daily needs, language, culture, etc., and that all of this is important for the internet to work proficiently. Outside the internet world, each nation is divided by many different factors, including laws, and cultural differences. This is what makes up each country and what makes them unique. It is the desires of how people want to live their lives and being able to do so, allows everyone to be happy and reduces conflicts within different regions. In other words, divisions make the world a more efficient whole. Of course the whole world can’t always get along. There are still many debates among nations, and the race to power is constantly happening. That is why the idea that the future of the internet will be determined by powerful nations and their desires, connects back to contemporary life today. There is war even going on right now, because nations disagree on who gets control and how they want to go about taking control.
Who controls the internet? is overall a very powerful and detailed book. Personally, it was very difficult to follow; however, once I interpreted the text, I realized that the authors had an excellent stance. Their main audience is directed towards college students and generally an older audience, so this book may be difficult for the younger crowd to read. They provide many strong examples throughout the book to support their arguments, as well as provide ones that are interesting. The authors frequently pull in the reader by relating to them through stories such as the development of virtual communities and things like Facebook. The one problem I did notice was that the book goes too much in depth with explaining stories/case studies. It starts to distract the reader from the main focus. Other than that, this book is especially influential and will leave any reader questioning.
Works Cited
Biography - Tim Wu." Tim Wu's Home Page. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. .
Goldsmith Bio." Economic Club of Memphis --- Intro Page... Web. 15 Oct. 2010.
.
October 31, 2017
Many of the points are now obvious but the book does well in capturing the time when tech exceptionalists were just starting to relent.
- The internet is not a homogenous unifying force that will wash away national borders.
- People in a geographical area share language and culture. Content differentiation is the only way to serve these differences.
- Governments are not always despotic as they are influenced by the values and interests of the people they represent.
- The internet is not a homogenous unifying force that will wash away national borders.
- People in a geographical area share language and culture. Content differentiation is the only way to serve these differences.
- Governments are not always despotic as they are influenced by the values and interests of the people they represent.
April 26, 2020
I enjoyed this book, however i feel like some of the arguments are wrong or lacking the full picture. it seems to be written from the perspective of this is the way the world is and there for this is right, i feel a little idealistic in saying i wish some of the things were wrong. or perhaps are considered to be wrong.
December 22, 2020
The book has aged quite well and many paradoxes/complexities discussed are still prevalent today.
Some conclusions in the book, felt a little obvious and intuitive to me. But, that's just personal opinion, and generally, I think for someone completely unfamiliar with the Internet policy making space, they would find the book insightful.
Some conclusions in the book, felt a little obvious and intuitive to me. But, that's just personal opinion, and generally, I think for someone completely unfamiliar with the Internet policy making space, they would find the book insightful.
March 1, 2018
Informative but not that fun to read 😅
June 4, 2018
Accessible to a lay audience and an easy read!
October 3, 2019
Spousta informaci, faktu, nazoru i predpokladu. Par veci o fungovani se dozvite a kdo to ridi nejspis take.
Akorat vydano v roce 8, takze chybi kapitolka o shrnuti posledni dekady.
Akorat vydano v roce 8, takze chybi kapitolka o shrnuti posledni dekady.
May 27, 2020
Insightful and helpful
October 16, 2021
Educational. A little boring at times, but worth the read for the info.
November 26, 2025
A lot of blank pages, apparently intentional. I read this for Mass Media Communications class. It has a lot of good information. I wish it had more information... I also have a headache now.
November 12, 2010
In the book, Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World, Tim Wu and Jack Goldsmith examine the recent boom of the internet. They explain that even though the internet gives its users virtually instant excess to shop, communicate, learn, teach, explore, etc., there are still borders and restrictions on this seemingly infinite online universe. It is argued by the authors that because of geography, persistence of physicality, and lack of means to centralize culture, the world will remain unique to its location (Goldsmith, and Wu 49-52). Wu, in a lecture, has stated that “people who are curious as to what happens when you push the limits”, will enjoy this book. A main theme discussed in this book was the illusions that the internet forms. Wu and Goldsmith give many examples that seem to provide evidence that the internet allows people all over the world to connect with each other and experience different cultures that otherwise would not be experienced. While Wu and Goldsmith express on the title that the internet provides and “illusion”, it is often hard to differentiate between the illusion of a borderless world, as shown by the title, and the examples used by Wu and Goldsmith that appear to prove an actual borderless world. This confusion stems from the numerous examples that are created and explained briefly in this book. With these examples that provide views to both a borderless world and a very bordered world, it becomes necessary to re-read portions of the book. Upon completion, the examples provided make sense, and allow for greater understanding of Goldsmith and Wu’s viewpoint.
The best parts of Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World are the examples that include commonly known entities such as Yahoo example given in the first chapter. In this Yahoo example, Wu and Goldsmith discuss Yahoo’s encounter with the French government. In this example, a man named Marc Knobel finds Nazi memorabilia being sold through the web host, Yahoo (Goldsmith, and Wu 1). Wu and Goldsmith explore the realm of the internet by examining the implications of the Nazi memorabilia being sold in America on the French government, because it was available for purchase in France. Wu and Goldsmith explain that even though there are serious borders between America and France, the French government had to power to intervene on the matter. As a whole, Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World, as mentioned earlier, is a book for people who are curious as to what happens when you push the limits. The examples keep your attention while the explanations are interesting and draw the reader in. The two authors have vast knowledge in the field of Law, thus allowing them to explain with necessary detail the legality of many situations that occur in the book. Jack Goldsmith is a Professor at Harvard Law School, and Tim Wu is a Professor at Columbia Law School. Wu has also worked in the internet telecommunications industry in Silicon Valley giving him firsthand experience in the realm of the internet.
The best parts of Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World are the examples that include commonly known entities such as Yahoo example given in the first chapter. In this Yahoo example, Wu and Goldsmith discuss Yahoo’s encounter with the French government. In this example, a man named Marc Knobel finds Nazi memorabilia being sold through the web host, Yahoo (Goldsmith, and Wu 1). Wu and Goldsmith explore the realm of the internet by examining the implications of the Nazi memorabilia being sold in America on the French government, because it was available for purchase in France. Wu and Goldsmith explain that even though there are serious borders between America and France, the French government had to power to intervene on the matter. As a whole, Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World, as mentioned earlier, is a book for people who are curious as to what happens when you push the limits. The examples keep your attention while the explanations are interesting and draw the reader in. The two authors have vast knowledge in the field of Law, thus allowing them to explain with necessary detail the legality of many situations that occur in the book. Jack Goldsmith is a Professor at Harvard Law School, and Tim Wu is a Professor at Columbia Law School. Wu has also worked in the internet telecommunications industry in Silicon Valley giving him firsthand experience in the realm of the internet.
February 26, 2017
Part-internet history, part international law course. While a but dry at times, this informative study if communication rights is fascinating and a must for anyone who uses the internet.
April 23, 2012
An excellent short history of the Internet that tries to put to rest the 90's libertarian prophecy of the Internet as the great globalizer and destroyer of nation states. The authors put clear arguments forward that show how the physical coercion of territorial governments can control the Internet, with the great firewall of China as an extreme example. Governments can coerce ISPs, which in turn can filter and shape the Internet. They can coerce financial service providers, which can make or break an online vendor. And so on. But this is not such a bad thing, according to them. The authors point out how the mundane presence of government gives the Internet the stability it needs to thrive as a marketplace. Their argument is valid, but I cannot imagine it will convince the most radical of the Internet libertarians. Stability is only necessary for businesses looking to make a buck through the Internet. The hippie culture of the early Internet enthusiasts could care less about the fortunes of eBay, wsj.com, Yahoo!, or any other example the authors bring forward.
Overall, this is a great read. It's fairly short, and manages to put forth a narrative style throughout much of it, which makes it that much more engaging.
The story about Jon Postel splitting the root of the Internet in the late 90's was particularly interesting. I'm don't know how I managed to earn my degree without learning about that before.
Overall, this is a great read. It's fairly short, and manages to put forth a narrative style throughout much of it, which makes it that much more engaging.
The story about Jon Postel splitting the root of the Internet in the late 90's was particularly interesting. I'm don't know how I managed to earn my degree without learning about that before.
December 30, 2012
Cogently and persuasively argues that the Internet has defied those who imagined it would herald an era of a borderless world. On the contrary, the state's coercive powers have contributed to the emergence of a bordered Internet, where what you publish on a website hosted in New Jersey can lead to a libel lawsuit in Australia.
Although the book was written six years ago, its prediction about the rise of competing approaches to the Internet appears to have been prescient. Instead of one truly global Internet, we seem destined for increasingly fragmented nation-state Internets, of the sort China and Iran are trying to build.
This book provides lots of useful background to the Internet governance fights which persist today. It was only fitting to read this book amidst the silliness happening at WCIT-12 in Dubai.
Although the book was written six years ago, its prediction about the rise of competing approaches to the Internet appears to have been prescient. Instead of one truly global Internet, we seem destined for increasingly fragmented nation-state Internets, of the sort China and Iran are trying to build.
This book provides lots of useful background to the Internet governance fights which persist today. It was only fitting to read this book amidst the silliness happening at WCIT-12 in Dubai.
June 1, 2011
An informative read, though somewhat depressing if you, like me, would like to imagine that the internet can make us more free in a meaningful way.
If you're interested in the intersection between government and the net you'll likely have heard about, if not followed, a lot of the incidents recounted in this book. I found myself most interested in the incidents I was too young and feckless to have heard of, like Postel's attempt to seize root authority from the DOD, than the more contemporary issues, like the great firewall of China.
If you're interested in the intersection between government and the net you'll likely have heard about, if not followed, a lot of the incidents recounted in this book. I found myself most interested in the incidents I was too young and feckless to have heard of, like Postel's attempt to seize root authority from the DOD, than the more contemporary issues, like the great firewall of China.
February 29, 2008
The building of the series of tubes in a nutshell. I agree with other commenters that it is dense at times. At other times, repetitive. However, still full of useful info. The discussion on international laws on a seeming "borderless" web is quite useful in understanding the challenges of one country enforcing it's standards on other countries. Also, the part about the Great Firewall of China is worth a read.
Read
July 12, 2012The Thesis that Goldsmith and Wu argue is that on the Internet, both locally and globally, "physical coercion by government – the hallmark of the traditional legal system – remains far more important than anyone expected." Building, in part, on Lawrence Lessig's work in his book "Code 2.0," "Who Controls the Internet" contributes to the body of work that seeks to combat earlier rhetoric of technological determinism.
April 3, 2015
Stručná historie internetu podaná srozumitelně s důrazem na (ne)veselé příklady problémů spojených s jeho zaváděním. Potěší spousta zajímavostí i zpětná reflexe událostí, kterým ve své době nebyl přikládán význam (nebo byl přikládán význam až příliš velký) a zamyšlení nad faktickou neexistencí svobody na internetu, hrozbami i výhodami globalizace. Může sloužit jak stručné shrnutí faktů, i odrazový můstek k dalšímu bádání. Ty internety totiž urazily zase pěkný kus cesty dopředu. Bude hůř.
November 26, 2011
A Junto selection, notable mainly for the cogent arguments its authors make on how governments, whether intentionally or not and whether with acceptance or not, help shape the way the Internet grows and maintains legal viability, such as the extended case study of eBay's willingness to let government cybercrime units from the US surveil its operations.
January 13, 2009
The Internet was not always in control of the USA government. On January 29, 1998, John Postel one of the 8 DNS keepers, asked the others to give him root control of all the domains. As you can imagine, that did not go over very well. "It was just a test"
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews