Self-Regulation and the Internet [Hardcover]

Monroe E. Price (Author), Stefaan G. Verhulst (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 2004

Every day, societal demand grows for some form of control or supervision over something that appears inherently beyond governance: the Internet. The gulf between community aspiration and the perceived limits on government capacity forces each entity, industry, and regulator to conduct a thorough and painstaking search for an appropriate solution. The resolution to this dilemma requires the innovation of regulatory design for the Internet. Without flexibility and responsiveness, traditional law and regulation cannot adequately address the transnational, intangible, and ever changing Internet space.

Attempts at Internet regulation generally have moved away from direct legal control and toward more flexible variations of what can be termed ¿self-regulation.¿ This ground-breaking book by two leading authorities in this new field of law concerns the mushrooming growth of institutions and systems of self-regulation on the Internet. Internet self-regulation involves many issues, including e-commerce, technical protocols, and domain names management, but most public concern and debate has been over illegal and harmful content on the Internet.

Self-Regulation and the Internet examines how self-regulatory entities for content relate to other quasi-legal and state institutions, what powers are accorded to or seized by self-regulatory institutions, and how the use of self-regulation can contribute to the more effective and more efficient realization of both economic and societal goals. This book offers:

a general and theoretical examination of self-regulation, focusing on codes of conduct;

approaches to the methodology and process for adopting such codes;

descriptions and evaluations of technical devices as self-regulatory tools; and

an analysis of Internet self-regulation in a converged and digital environment.

The analysis encompasses a wide spectrum, from technical matters of filters and transmission streams to such important legal issues as the possible meanings of such terms as ¿illegal and harmful.¿ Crucial topics include ISP service agreements, anti-spam measures, regulation of hate speech, digital television, defining a common language for metainformation, and a great deal more. The geographic scope is global, with numerous detailed references to developments in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia.

The breadth and depth of this analysis, and the vast quantity of information that underpins it, give this book an authoritative preeminence not to be found elsewhere. In the coming years, as the material it examines continues to grow and change in ever more dramatic ways, it will be turned to again and again for its invaluable insights and recommendations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Kluwer Law International; 1 edition (December 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9041123067
• ISBN-13: 978-9041123060
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,174,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Monroe E. Price

Prof. Price is Director of The Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and Director of the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research in London. Prof. Price, who was Dean from 1982 to 1991, is now the Joseph and Sadie Danciger Professor of Law and Director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society at the Cardozo School of Law. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale, where he was executive editor of the Yale Law Journal. He clerked for Associate Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court and was an assistant to Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz.

He was founding director of the Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy at Wolfson College, Oxford, and a Member of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Prof. Price was a senior fellow of the Media Studies Center in spring 1998. He was deputy director of California Indian Legal Services, one of the founders of the Native American Rights Fund, and author of Law and the American Indian. Among his many books are Media and Sovereignty and Television, The Public Sphere and National Identity, and a treatise on cable television. His new memoir, Objects of Remembrance: A Memoir of American Opportunities and Viennese Dreams, is now available on Amazon.com.