Title: Scale-Free Law: Network Science and Copyright
Abstract: I. INTRODUCTION One common feature of literature dealing with new technologies, and particularly those authors dealing with any legal aspect of cyberspace, is to over-emphasize importance of information and communication technologies to our present situation. This has led to an abundance of commonplaces that are just variations of phrase the Internet has changed While it is useful to distance oneself from such cliches, this essay will unfortunately begin with a variation of this theme. Commonplaces exist for a reason, and in areas of copyright law and study of networks, Internet has indeed changed everything. Networks are everywhere. The staggering complexity and seemingly chaotic nature of everyday life is actually a collection of different interactions. We are constantly surrounded by social network, financial network, transport network, telecommunications network, and even network within our own bodies. The understanding of how these systems operate and interact with one another has been realm of physicists, economists, biologists, and mathematicians. Until recently, study of networks was left to theoretical and academic debates as it lacked proper empirical application because it was difficult to gather reliable data about large and complex systems. But in recent years, Internet has given researchers opportunity to study and test mathematical descriptions of vast complex systems. The growth rate and structure of cyberspace allows researchers to map and test several previously unproven theories about how links and hubs within network interact with one another. With Web, we now have means to test organizational structures of networks, their architecture, their growth, and even allow some limited predictions about their behavior, strengths and vulnerabilities. With increasing reliability on descriptive--and sometimes predictive--nature of network science, a logical next step for legal scholars is to look at potential legal implications of some of characteristics of networks. Some academics and practitioners have started finding potential uses for network science tools; efforts that will be highlighted in following pages. One particular topic of interest where network science could have a noticeable effect is area of regulation of Internet, which has provided ample possibilities for discussion and analysis during its short existence. (1) Some of most interesting legal literature from early days of modern Internet (2) deals with potential difficulties in putting a leash on chaotic and anarchic nature of cyberspace. The skepticism about impossibility to generate any effective type of regulation has prompted some authors to theorize about how to exercise control over online world. (3) This debate left some unanswered questions, particularly in area of intellectual property rights, where enforcement of copyright in digital domain has become an increasingly difficult issue. It is in this legal context where present article will attempt to make use of study of self-organized scale-free networks in order to make use of improved understanding of how networks are formed, grow and operate, and apply it to problematic regulation of copyright in cyberspace. II. THE NETWORK SCIENCE REVOLUTION It would be easy to overestimate importance of network theory in real world by stressing importance of Internet to our everyday lives; however, such assumptions would be missing fact that study of networks is not a new science. The understanding of how networks operate and interact with one another has been studied by physicists, economists, and mathematicians for centuries. (4) Many operational assumptions and theories of networks, however, had not been applied by other disciplines. Some earlier works on topic described specific network architectures and characteristics, but studies were smaller-scale, although they set theoretical principles for what was to become modern discipline. …
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-09-22
Language: en
Type: article
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