The Limits in Open Code: Regulatory Standards and the Future of the Net
Lawrence Lessig · Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) · 1999
This essay considers the effect of the open source software movement on government's ability to regulate the Net.Its claim is that an increase in open source software within the application space of the Internet decreases the government's power to regulate.This is an essay about standards in the future of the Internet's governance.I begin with a distinction between two types of standards, and then continue with a reminder of a bit of history of the evolution of thought about regulation in cyberspace.I then draw upon this distinction and this history to suggest a question about the future of the Net's regulation.This question relates to the place of open source software in the future of the "application space" of the Internet.My argument is that open source software will make regulating cyberspace more difficult than it otherwise would be.I. STANDARDS Distinguish between two sorts of standards: coordinating and regulating.A coordinating standard is a rule that facilitates an activity that otherwise would not exist.A regulating standard restricts behavior within that activity, according to a policy set by the regulators.A coordinating standard can be imposed from the top down, or emerge from the bottom up; a regulating standard is ordinarily imposed only from the top down.Driving on the right side of the road is a coordinating standard.A speed limit is a regulating standard.Coordinating standards limit liberty (drive on the right) to make an activity possible (driving); regulating standards limit liberty within that activity (speeding) to advance a regulatory end (safety or