GoodWork Paper 14: GoodWork in Cyberlaw: Rethinking Order in Our New Reality (PDF)

Author(s): Evan Zullow

Editor(s): Jeff Solomon, Series Editor

Media: PDF

Description: Few professions are as steeped in tradition as the law, and it is arguable that no phenomenon in recent times has catalyzed more change than the Internet. Therefore, a study of the individuals who are presently shepherding their intersection is important. For the study on Internet Law, or “Cyberlaw,” seventeen lawyers practicing in a variety of settings were interviewed, using a set of protocol questions adapted from earlier studies on genetics and journalism. This paper examines the backgrounds of these unusual lawyers, in addition to their beliefs, goals, and responsibilities. Subjects express a great deal of satisfaction with their work, often contrasting their activities markedly with those of the larger legal profession. As lawyers, their specific concerns cover the panoply of legal issues impacted by the Internet, including free speech, intellectual property, and privacy. They also emphasize the powerful implications of the Internet itself, drawing attention to the extraordinary ingenuity and reflection that has characterized the work of the engineers and technologists who created it, and continue to refashion it every day. The lawyers themselves harbor deep loyalties to their own personal visions of what the Internet represents, and what it may one day become. However, the lawyers‘ hopes are potentially threatened, most of all by the commercial development associated with the Net‘s expansion. Subjects‘ concern for the Internet suggests that a thoughtful treatment of cyberlaw should be as much a discussion of “cyber” as law.