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Title: Who Controls the Internet

Subtitle: Illusions of a Borderless World

Author: Jack Goldsmith, Tim Wu

Narrator: Bob Loza

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-24-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 126 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Technology

Publisher's Summary:

Is the Internet erasing national borders? Who's really in control of what's happening on the Net--Internet engineers, rogue programmers, the United Nations, or powerful countries? In this provocative new book, Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu tell the fascinating story of the Internet's challenge to governmental rule in the 1990s, and the ensuing battles with governments around the world. It's a book about the fate of one idea--that the Internet might liberate us forever from government, borders, and even our physical selves.

We learn of Google's struggles with the French government and Yahoo's capitulation to the Chinese regime; of how the European Union sets privacy standards on the Net for the entire world; and of eBay's struggles with fraud and how it slowly learned to trust the FBI. In a decade of events, the original vision was uprooted, as governments time and time again asserted their power to direct the future of the Internet. The destiny of the Internet over the next decades, argue Goldsmith and Wu, will reflect the interests of powerful nations and the conflicts within and between them. Well written and filled with fascinating examples, this is a work that is bound to stir heated debate in the cyberspace community.

Members Reviews:

Mostly delves into questions of law

I expected this book to "follow the money", and delve into the extent to which the interests of large corporations have molded the evolution of the internet. Instead, this book investigates the legal implications of a "borderless" medium such as the Internet. In other words, how do the laws of one land apply to content that originates in another land? How do companies comply with the variable free speech laws of different nations (China vs. the U.S. for instance).

For me, I found it getting tedious about halfway through. Possibly more interesting to a law student.

The World is Flat?

"The World is Flat" and the "Lexus and the Olive Tree" sought to tell us why the internet would allow national boundaries to fall between countries. Essentially, Tim Wu and Jack Goldsmith explain why this prediction is not coming true. Goldsmith and Wu are two of America's leading scholars writing on cyberspace. Individuals interested in the current state and the future impact of cyberspace would benefit from a reading of their volume. Anyone who thinks that the internet should or can run unfettered -will find this volume an eye opener. The writing is clear and accessible. The reading of Bob Loza is excellent.

Is the World truly flat?

The short book by Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu "Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of Borderless World" is absolutely a MUST for all who ponder about Internet. It should also be read by all who hold naive concepts about globalization or are sometimes against it.

In essence, it demonstrates, that contrary to popular views, Internet IS controlled by nations states and their policies. What is more, the authors argue, that this control is not only bad thing, not only it is not a censorship, but it is the imposition of law, which benefits the Internet.

The book devotes a lot of thoughts to the initial revolutionary movement for the freedom of cyberspace - the freedom from nation states governments.