The Internet.

Essay by salmaUniversity, Bachelor'sF, June 2003

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The development of the Net has greatly changed the way we lead our lives and will do so more as the Net expands and grows in the future. As such, it is of great importance that we understand the nature and functions in order to understand internet in a way we've been asking ourselves the question "What is the Net?" Some of us have myths, views, ideas and dreams we want to believe about the Internet. And so, two articles have been chosen to argue the very fundamental question of how we think about the net, who owns it and how do we control the net.

This essay is an analysis of two opposing view on the issue of controlling the Net. The two articles that were analyzed in regards to this essay are 'A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace' by J.P.Barlow and 'Taming the Web' by C.C.Mann.

In relations to Barlow's article, he purports that the Net is uncontrollable by man. This is clearly evident in the following quote taken from Barlow's article which states that 'I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us'. Barlow asserts so because of the nature and function of the Net. What is meant by the 'nature' of the Net is referring to the elusive existence of the Net which Barlow claims that the Net is "...a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live." As such, implementing legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context is futile as these are based on matter and the Net consist of non-matter. In relations to the uncontrollability of the Net due to its function, Barlow claims that the Net is a...