1101101101001000000100011001110010011001010110
0101011001000110111101101101001000000100011001
1100100110010101100101011001000110111101101101
0010000001000110011100100110010101100101011001
0001101111011011010010000001000110011100100110
0101011001010110010001101111011011010010000001
0001100111001001100101011001010110010001101111
0110110100100000010001100111001001100101011001
0101100100011011110110110100100000010001100111
0010011001010110010101100100011011110110110100
7
• Includes monetary & non-monetary transactions
• Includes proprietary & non-proprietary modes of
production
• Collaborative, non-proprietary technologies & efforts
(e.g., Wikipedia and open source software) can also be
“markets”
• But the cyber-libertarian does reject the notion these
models are the only acceptable model or that they
should be imposed on us by law
• We support techno-agnosticism: Lawmakers and courts
should not be tilting the balance in one direction or the
other towards on the “open vs. closed” spectrum
8
9
• Natural Rights philosophers – John Locke, Ayn Rand, The
Founders
• Utilitarian philosophers – John Stuart Mill (On Liberty),
Herbert Spencer
• “Austrian School” of Economics – Ludwig von Mises, F.A.
Hayek, Murray Rothbard
• Milton Freidman (Free to Choose)
• Robert Nozick – argued for a minimalist state as a
“utopia of utopias”
• Thomas Sowell – critiqued The Vision of the Anointed
• Richard Epstein – (Simple Rules for a Complex World)
10
• Ithiel de Sola Pool (Technologies of Freedom)
• Alvin Toffler (The Third Wave, Future Shock)
• George Gilder (Microcosm, Telecosm)
• Peter Huber (Law & Disorder in Cyberspace)
• Tom W. Bell
• Eugene Volokh
• Jonathan Emord (Freedom, Technology & the
First Amendment)
• Technology Liberation Front – the cyber-
libertarian group blog since 2004
11
• Nicholas Negroponte (Being Digital)
• John Perry Barlow (“Declaration of the
Independence of Cyberspace”)
• David Post
• Eric Goldman
• H. Brian Holland
12
13
• The opposite of cyber-libertarianism: cyber-choices should be
guided by the State or an elite according to some amorphous
“general will” or “public interest”
• Distant influences of Plato, Rousseau & Marx
• Cyber-collectivism comes in many flavors, however:
• “Left”: focused on economic fairness, “neutrality,” and equality of
outcomes
• “Right”: controlling the Internet’s impact on culture or security
• Not as philosophically coherent as cyber-libertarianism—
which also comes in many flavors but shares a larger core of
common agreement
14
• Leftist cyber-collectivists & the “information commons”
or “digital commons” movement share belief that digital
resources should be shared or commonly owned
• We don’t object to commons, only to mandating them
• Cyber-collectivists
• Are generally not Marxists; few of them call for state
ownership of the information means of production
• Might better be thought of a “cyber-social Democrats”
(European) or “Digital New Dealers” (American)
• Advocate a generous role for law and regulation in many
online matters, but do not typically resort to full-blown
nationalization 15
• Lawrence Lessig (Code)
• Tim Wu (Who Controls the Internet?)
• Yochai Benkler (The Wealth of Networks)
• Jonathan Zittrain (The Future of the Internet & How to Stop It)
• David Bollier (Viral Spiral)
• Harvard’s Berkman Center*
• New America Foundation*
• Public Knowledge*
21
• No special taxes should be imposed on online
services or Internet access
• If the Net disrupts traditional tax bases, that
should be seen as an opportunity to reform
those tax systems
• States shouldn’t be regulating the uniquely
global medium of the Internet or imposing
barriers to interstate commerce
22
• People should be free to do as they please
with their money
• We shouldn’t protect state-run lotteries and
casinos
• Internet gambling is likely impossible to shut
down entirely anyway, given the uniquely
global nature of the Internet
23
• Cyber-libertarians are deeply divided over IP
issues (esp. copyright), reflecting a long-standing
division among libertarians on these issues
• Some believe IP rights are a natural extension of
traditional property rights and/or a sensible way
to incentivize scientific and artistic creativity
• Others believe no one has a right to
“property-tize” intangible creations or that
copyright is simply industrial protectionism
• There are many views in between
24
Please visit The Technology Liberation Front
www.techliberation.com
25
Adam Thierer is a Senior Fellow at The Progress & Freedom
Foundation (PFF) & Director of PFF’s Center for Digital Media
Freedom (CDMF). Thierer analyzes public policy
developments that impact the economic and social aspects
of the media industry, including related First Amendment
issues. Prior to joining PFF in 2005, he was Director of
Telecommunications Studies at the Cato Institute and a
Fellow in Economic Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
26