Law and the Geography of Cyberspace

6 W.I.P.O.J., Issue 1 (2014)

UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper No. 432

9 Pages Posted: 6 Jun 2015 Last revised: 26 Jun 2015

See all articles by Anupam Chander

Anupam Chander

Georgetown University Law Center

Date Written: June 4, 2015

Abstract

The Internet was supposed to end geography. Anyone, anywhere could now run a newspaper, a search engine, a game service, and the world could access it. After millennia of geography dictating destiny, the world was now flat, and opportunity evenly distributed everywhere. Yet, a quick glance at the world’s leading internet companies, from Facebook to Zillow, leads one remarkably often to the United States. In this article, I argue that law played a crucial role in creating the geography of cyberspace — specifically, that flexible intellectual property rules which permitted internet entrepreneurship in the United States proved a key ingredient in American commercial success on the Internet.

Suggested Citation

Chander, Anupam, Law and the Geography of Cyberspace (June 4, 2015). 6 W.I.P.O.J., Issue 1 (2014), UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper No. 432, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2614555

Anupam Chander (Contact Author)

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

Washington, DC

HOME PAGE: http://Chander.org

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