Customer Reviews

Sex, Laws, and Cyberspace

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I own but have not read Sex Laws and Cyberspace in its entirety. This is because the book is poorly written and hard to read.

The book deals with cogent questions about types of pornography and legal problems in the theory and practice of censoring it.

However, it appears Wallace and Mangan aimed at length instead of lucidity in each paragraph and chapter. Reading page after page of their rambling narrative is simply too much.

The title of the review about sums everything up. It started off very slow and boring and I almost put it down. I was sick, however, and struggled on. The book gets a lot better in later chapters, but since it references the beginning a lot, you have to struggle through the beginning. There's some really good quotes in the last chapter. The use of traditionally offensive issues like online kiddie porn and violent "erotica" to illustrate the issues (in the beginning) was a decent attempt to shock the reader into re-examining digital law from other perspectives, but may backfire or upset some.

As others have noted, though, it is quite dated.

Overview: Give credit to authors Wallace and Mangan: they wear their sympathy on their sleeves. "Sex, Laws, and Cyberspace" is not intended to be an objective review of the state of First Amendment protection on the Net; it is a passionate argument for redefining how we apply the First Amendment to the Internet. This passion is both the book's strength and its weakness, as it will reinforce beliefs but not necessarily win converts. The book's outstanding summary of major events in Internet law will provide researchers with tremendous details in the years to come.

Full text of this review is at: http://www.redstreet.com/readingroom/reviews/sexlaws.htm

I believe that the book enstilled frightening thoughts in my mind of the dangers available on the Internet. A must read book before you let your child use the information superhighway.