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My frame of reference: an internet society

-- By GillianWhite - 15 Oct 2012

My confusion

Writing this post—at least version one—has proven to be more difficult than my other assignments.

I have been feeling rather stupid. To briefly psychoanalyze, I think that the source of this unedifying emotion is that the course is making me feel even more confused about what—as a lawyer, a policy maker, a citizen—I should think about “the internet”.

My confused, but interested, brain has thought the following over the past few weeks.

What if I support much of what Professor Moglen says about the downfall (and corruption) of intellectual property law, but also believe that actual writers and artists of our time should have an independent source of revenue that isn’t tied to the vagaries of philanthropy or being enough of a marketer that you can find some other non-copyright-derived-way for people to pay for your work directly?

What if I’m worried about the collection and dissemination of private information by Google, Facebook and the others, but feel that a large number of increasingly cynical consumers have already made the ‘trade-off’ between privacy and these products’ utility? Won’t these consumers continue to find free software and encrypted email something that will never be packaged in a way that changes their minds about the trade-off?

And, the core of it, what if I can’t (for normative and/or pragmatic) reasons believe that a revolution towards true internet freedom is likely to occur? Yet, at the same time, support much of the underlying call of that movement: that the internet should not be used as a tool of repression by government or corporate interests; indeed it should be a source and inspirer of freedom. Besides confusion, these questions are making me very glad to be thinking! I suspect that I am not alone in feeling that without technical expertise or freedom ‘politics’ in my blood, these thoughts are genuinely hard work.

Breaking through the confusion

To break through this confusion, I decided that I needed to clarify my own framework for analysis: what does the internet society mean to me?

For me, it doesn’t really matter whether you conceive of the internet as a microcosm of society, or society itself. It is, however, very important that it is conceived of as a society and not simply a market. As Karl Polanyi wrote in ‘The Great Transformation’, it is a fallacy of many economists that society is or should be run as an ‘adjunct to the market’. This is not say that the market economy should not operate within a society; but I think that it should be seen as one form of interaction within a much broader phenomenon. Just like I don’t believe that the market was the means or end in 19th or 20th century life, so too I think it is incorrect to conceive of the internet society with this narrow paradigm of purpose and effect.

As a matter of description we know that the internet society is not simply a market because of history and practice. We have already learnt in this course that the birth of this microcosm was the birth of a collaborative, communitarian effort to share information and knowledge. I also know from my own experiences that there are many ways that we interact online which are not about the profit motive and are versions of social and socializing behaviors that we exhibit in other aspects of our lives.

Normatively, I believe that the strength and possibility of the internet society is when it is conceived as a global commons where ideas, information and goods are exchanged in a variety of non-market and market ways. In other words, the internet should not be defined ‘for the convenience of [anyone’s] business model’ (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v Grokster, amicus brief, Eben Moglen), but instead with much broader objectives in mind.

I am also influenced by another of Polanyi’s ideas about the evolution of 19th century market society. That is, that the history of the market economy is a history of society protecting itself against the perils of an unregulated market.

Next (baby) steps

With this framework as my starting point, I feel a bit closer to a way of thinking about questions that I raised above. It leads me to two broad propositions which I want to use to guide my thinking in the rest of the course.

First, that the internet should not be one gigantic business model in action. Like any commons, there can be markets and trade within the society; but there should also be room and encouragement for myriad human interactions that are not simply code for advertising revenue.

Secondly, I don’t believe that the market aspect of this society can always be left to regulate itself. This market has an invidious way of swamping other interactions. The challenge is that many purveyors seek to use regulation as a tool to protect their existing markets. It is always easier to identify the problems with a suggested solution than to construct a solution. But the existence of problems with a suggested solution does not entail that the opposite of that solution is preferable. When both non-regulation and regulation are problematic, it’s easy for supporters of one just to point to the flaws in the other. The best answer is likely to be more nuanced.

This second proposition—that regulation is needed—is why I say I am only a bit closer to a way of thinking about the internet society. I need to keep learning and thinking about what I actually mean when I say we need regulation. The dangers of unintended consequences and of undermining the freedom and diversity that is the essence of the society, require pause for thought. To give myself some credit, however, perhaps this is always going to be a complex discussion. When and what regulation may be needed may always need messy, case-by-case solutions. I will try to tackle one of these messy issues in my next post.