Internet Creativity, Communicative Freedom and a Constitutional Rights Theory Response to 'Code is Law'

TRANSNATIONAL CULTURE IN THE INTERNET AGE, Sean Pager and Adam Candeub, eds, pp. 135-164, Edward Elgar, 2012

i-call Working Paper No. 2010/03

26 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2011 Last revised: 25 May 2014

Date Written: July 1, 2012

Abstract

The code that regulates cyberspace empowers private bodies to set standards of Internet access and use, which are often not visible. Content filtering, as a response to copyright infringement, or models differentiating between various data transmissions are examples of measures that have been undertaken by Internet intermediaries. Arguably, they are necessary to protect intellectual property and digital business. Emanating from private bodies, such measures are beyond the reach of constitutional rights, although they may strongly impact conditions of communicative freedom and creativity on the Internet. This paper endeavours to explore whether a theory of “constitutional rights in the private sphere” may have a case in a digital networked ecology.

Keywords: Content filtering, copyright, Internet creativity, communicative freedom, constitutional rights

JEL Classification: K19, K23

Suggested Citation

Graber, Christoph B., Internet Creativity, Communicative Freedom and a Constitutional Rights Theory Response to 'Code is Law' (July 1, 2012). TRANSNATIONAL CULTURE IN THE INTERNET AGE, Sean Pager and Adam Candeub, eds, pp. 135-164, Edward Elgar, 2012, i-call Working Paper No. 2010/03, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1737630 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1737630

Christoph B. Graber (Contact Author)

University of Zurich, Faculty of Law ( email )

Treichlerstrasse 10
Zurich, 8032
Switzerland

HOME PAGE: http://www.ius.uzh.ch/en/staff/professorships/alphabetical/graber/person.html

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