Virtual Worlds: Blog Three-Internet Laws

            During class this week our main topic of discussion was the laws and jurisdiction of the Internet and how it is difficult to actually govern and have set laws. One reading in particular stuck out more to me. Written by David Johnson and David Post, Laws and Borders: the Rise of Law in Cyberspace touched on many subjects that are quite relevant to today. They mainly touch on subject of the “new rules [that] will emerge, in a variety of online spaces, to govern a wide range of new phenomena that have no clear parallel in the nonvirtual world.” Basically, cyberspace is an entirely new place that cannot abide by all of the rules of every country or nation that uses the Internet. Post and Johnson claim that, “These new rules will play the role of law by defining legal personhood and property, resolving disputes, and crystallizing a collective conversation about core values.” They claim that cyberspace should be considered to be a place and therefore should have it’s own rules.

            I cannot really think of many things that I have run into in LOTRO while playing that is relevant to our readings. I have not run into people breaking rules or doing cheats or even trolls while playing the game. But an issue that is relevant to current events would be that of SOPA and PIPA. They were put in place to “eliminate” copyright infringement on the Internet. In short, SOPA aka Stop Online Piracy Act allows companies to remove websites if they contain something that is copyrighted or a hyperlink to copyrighted material. On the other hand, PIPA aka Protect Intellectual Property Act is very similar to SOPA, but it deals with foreign websites and attempts to stop them from hosting things like TV shows that are considered to be copyrighted material. If these were to become laws many websites would be shut down and lots of companies would be destroyed.

            I think that congress honestly has no business dealing in laws and matters that deal with the Internet. I believe this because of multiple reasons including that congress should not be involved with law making of the Internet but also the fact that they are not experts on the ways the Internet works. Both Johnson and Post would probably agree with me on this topic. So many things would go wrong when government tries to interfere with the Internet.  A “blackout” was held last Wednesday (January 18^th) to protest SOPA and PIPA. Sites such as Reddit and Wikipedia (along with multiple other websites) went dark for 24 hours. Many things would go wrong if SOPA and PIPA became real laws. This is why congress needs to read up and learn more about the Internet and how cyberspace should be considered a new place and the laws should be treated as such.