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Technology Law Andrew Murray Literature Book Summary and Notes
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Notes and summary on Andrew Murray's book for the course Technology Law
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Technology Law Literature NotesWeek 1: Pages 1-17, 26-57
A bit is a 0 or 1.
o They can be used to construct larger, more complex systems that give them their
economic value and social importance.
o A bit represents an instruction to the computer. It is either to do (1) or not to do (0)
a particular function.
The CPU reads this bit.
Jon von Neumann architecture: four-step system which turns bits into computer operations
or data.
o 1. Fetch: retrieving an instruction from program memory
o 2. Decode: instruction is broken up by the CPU in separate instruction which require
the CPU to do different operations.
o 3. Execute: CPU carries out the instruction in the fetched data.
o 4. Writeback: the result of its operational process to memory.
Process of Digitization
Bill Gates in his book ‘The Road Ahead’ explains the difference between the analogue world
of atoms and the digital world of bits through a simple example:
o Imagining a 250- watt light bulb attached to a dimmer switch. (See page 7)
o Digital transmissions are less likely to suffer drop-offs as the message sent is short
and precise unlike analogue transmissions.
o ASCII common system used by all computers to encode all the letters and
punctuation of the English Language.
65-90 are the values given to upper case letters A-Z.
Eight bits are one byte.
Negroponte points out that bits are like atoms and make up everything in the information
society.
During the 80s computers moved out of the research laboratory and the workplace into the
home environment.
o Children’s games were the first entertainment media to be digitized.
Napster Case is important for the music industry and changed it forever.
o It was also significant for the socio-economic development.
o Bits are economically valuable because they represent new and revolutionary
models to market and deliver those products or services, which are by nature
informational products and which are traditionally embedded in or attacked to a
separate carrier media.
o Once Napster was gone people realised they also valued the convenience of Napster
and for some the feeling of belonging to the Napster community.
o Legal download sites replaced Napster.
This led to the development of social networking sites as these legal
download sites did not have the same community spirit as Napster.
Eg. MySpace (influenced by music culture)
This influence is still apparent from YouTube
Most important question: ‘WHY DOES LAW HAVE TO TAKE ACCOUNT OF THE EFFECT OF
BITS?’
, Rivalrous good: goods whose consumption by one consumer prevents simultaneous
consumption by other consumers. These are usually atomic goods which could either be
durable or non-durable.
o An umbrella is a durable item as it can be used again.
o However, a concert ticket is a non-durable item because once used, it is not possible
to use it again.
Nonrivalalrous goods: can be consumed by several consumers simultaneously.
o These are usually nontangible.
Eg. Netflix, radio, light, sound
Informational goods
These can either be shared or stored
Therefore, the move from atoms to the world of bits can be defined as the move from
rivalrousness to nonrivalrousness.
3 effects of the move from industrial to informational society:
1. A shift from ownership or control of things to ownership of or control over information
2. Represents a new and revolutionary model to market and deliver products or services
3. Represents a move from rivalrousness to nonrivalrousness.
The three things above may pose a challenge to traditional legal values and traditional legal
rules.
All law systems have a basic distinction between tangible and intangible goods.
o Tangible goods represent goods of economic value and are protected.
Theft Act 1968: ‘intention to permanently deprive’: to commit theft you
must tke something physical and rivalrous. This is the reason why copying
mp3 without the permission of the owner is not theft. (This is regulated
somewhere else)
o Bits are not scarce resources as they never run out and this is how the traditional
law of atomic property is altered by the scalability of bits as it can be replicated.
This is why music can be copied.
Therefore, information is valuable as it is almost infinitely scalable,
nonrivalrous and intangible.
John Perry Barlow ‘The Economy of Ideas: A Framework for Patents and Copyrights in the
Digital Age’, with the advent of digitization it is now possible to replace all previous
information storage forms with complex and highly liquid patterns of ones and zeros.
o In Barlow’s argument the valuable content is being separated from the traditional
carrier and the move from atoms to bits is affecting traditional property values and
also undermining our traditional models for enforcing intangible intellectual
property rights.
Lawyers today face a challenge on how to protect the value of information where it is
instantly replicable, transmissible and infinitely scalable.
INTERNET: word made up of inter and net.
o Inter is from the Latin word which means between or among while net is short for
network.
o The internet is not a single computer networks but allows the transfer of digital date
or bits across the networks.
o The internet is a telecommunications system for computer networks.
o Licklider’s paper Man-Computer Symbiosis
, Computers were expensive for computer scientists to further their research and this meant
2 things:
o 1. The development of time-sharing mainframe resources
o 2. A network of machines which would allow researchers in different parts of the
country to share results and resources easily.
Net/ Network Neutrality
This is known as the principle that data packets on the internet should be moved impartially
without regard to content, destination, or source.
o All data treated equally
o This is sometimes referred to as the first amendment of the internet.
o This principle is highly prized by many internet pioneers including Professor Sir Tim
Berners-Lee who is the creator of world wide web.
o This has been subject to intense debate and is the most intense battles over internet
regulation.
o There are concerns that service providers my deteriorate the quality of service of
applications.
For example, Melita deteriorating the quality of Netflix.
Your ISP may block you from accessing certain activities.
Eg. In 2007: Comcast a US cable company was blocking access to
BitTorrent who were referred to the Federal Communication
Commission.
The US Federal government and the European Union both have examined whether there is a
need to enshrine the principle of net neutrality.
o In 2006, Senators Dorgan and Snowe introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation
Bill/ Dorgan-Snowe Bill which sought to enshrine the principle of net neutrality,
The Bill quickly became bogged down
FCC made a set of draft rules that would codify and supplement existing principles to
safeguard internet openness and adopted the Open Internet Report and Order. (see page
28)
o 1. Transparency
o 2. No blocking
o 3. No unreasonable discrimination
FCC was found to act ultra vires in the Comcast case as they had no mandate
or authority to interfere into network management capability.
Thus, the Open Internet Report and Order would be fruitless and now
becomes a guideline and not an order.
Disputes regarding a provider of broadband Internet access service regarding Internet traffic
exchange arrangements that interfere with the delivery of a broadband Internet access
service end user’s traffic are subject to authority under Title II of the Act.
2015 FCC Internet Rules (p.31):
o No blocking
o No throttling
o No paid prioritization
o No unreasonable interference or unreasonable disadvantage standard for Internet
conduct.
o In addition to the Internet rules the 2010 rule of transparency remains in effect
which gives five rules.
, In Europe the issue of net neutrality is more of an economically one rather than a political
one as Europe has a competitive market.
o European Union has declared that they recognise the need to preserve the open and
neutral character of the internet
o There is a regulation regarding net neutrality.
Higher Level Protocols
Hypertext Transfer Protocol allow us to carry out operations such as web surfing or video
streaming.
The Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI) divides the functions of a protocol
into a series of layers.
o Each later has the property that it only uses the functions of the lower layer and
exports their function to the layer above. The lower layers are typically hardware
while the higher layers are software.
o This model shows the challenges that regulators and lawyers must face.
Benkler model: From Consumers to Users: 3-layer network:
o 1. The physical infrastructure layer
Foundation layer
o 2. The logical infrastructure layer
Necessary software components to carry, store and transfer content such as
the TCP/ IP protocol
o 3. The content layer
All materials stored
We use higher-level protocols daily when reading Facebook posts and sending and receiving
emails.
o Other examples may be Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
o VoIP: Skype
o RTP: YouTube
o HTTP
World Wide Web, the invention of the internet is credited to Sir Tim Berners-Lee
It is important to be aware of the distinction between web and internet:
o Regulation of web content: regulation at the content layer
o Internet Regulation: regulation of the logical infrastructure layer
Digitization & Society
The move from atoms to bits represents a challenge to the traditional economics of bricks
and mortar industries as well as to established legal models.
o A bit can be used as the building block of all types of digital information.
There are three developments which have changed the way we use, store and transmit
information.
o 1. The cost of storing bits has fallen dramatically over the last 60 years.
o 2. The cost and speed of transmitting bits across computer networks has equally
fallen
o 3. Consumers have fuelled a demand for the incorporation of greater storage
capacity and multi-platform support in all digital devices.
Digitization of Information
This has helped improve daily life. It has even helped with Medical Records as before it
would have taken long to find someone’s records.
Cate’s four reasons for data growth which show an explosion in digital data:
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