Rating: 
Summary: A Thrilling, Inside Story of Internet Legal Development
Review: "Cyber Rights" provides a real insider's view aboutthe early development of Internet law in the United States, focusingon free speech, privacy and copyright issues, among others.He notes that some things have changed since he wrote "Cyber Rights": "One of the great ironies of cyberlaw is the extent to which policymakers were panicky about anonymity on the Net in the early 1990s -- nowadays it's increasingly obvious that the Internet is one of the least anonymous places there is, since so much that you do there is archived and recorded."
Rating:
Summary: A Thrilling, Inside Story of Internet Legal Development
Review: "Cyber Rights" provides a real insider's view aboutthe early development of Internet law in the United States, focusingon free speech, privacy and copyright issues, among others. He notes that some things have changed since he wrote "Cyber Rights": "One of the great ironies of cyberlaw is the extent to which policymakers were panicky about anonymity on the Net in the early 1990s -- nowadays it's increasingly obvious that the Internet is one of the least anonymous places there is, since so much that you do there is archived and recorded."
Rating: 
Summary: What I was up to in writing CYBER RIGHTS
Review: All through the mid-1990s, I kept seeing this growing panic about the Internet, which is routinely characterized as a lawless, threatening place. But I believe the social and legal reality of the Net to be quite different, and I felt I could prove that free speech on the Net is something to celebrate. But how does a guy write a book that both challenges the naysayers and frames a strong free-speech argument for protecting the Net without either a) putting people to sleep or b) "preaching to the converted"? My solution in CYBER RIGHTS was to build the book around personal stories -- mostly my own stories and cases I've been involved in. I figured that if people could read along and see how these issues affected me, a civil-liberties lawyer who is also a parent and who values his community, they'd be more open to my arguments that we shouldn't jump to any conclusions about the need to regulate free speech on the Internet. I wanted to outline in human terms why! we shouldn't be afraid of the immense new freedom and power that the Net gives individuals. Not only are the protections for that freedom and power built into our laws and Constitution, but that freedom also makes our communities and our society stronger, not weaker. In short, I tried to write a book that, while interesting to someone who already knows something about the Internet, would speak primarily to the majority of us who have no experience there yet, and who worry about the kind of fearful negativism about the Net that we have consistently been hearing both from our leaders and from traditional media institutions (which ought to know better). I think readers will be particularly interested in my how-to advice for dealing with media when you're in the middle of a story, which I illustrate with a couple of examples from my own life and career. The fact is, with the Internet nobody needs to be a victim of media coverage -- you have all the tools you need to make sure t! hat falsehoods are corrected and that the truth gets told.Thanks for reading! --Mike
Rating: 
Summary: Prescient, powerful and timely
Review: As a media critic and author, I'm happy to enthusiastically recommend Cyber Rights to anybody who cares about free speech, the movement of ideas, and the past and future of free speech, especially Free Speech as it relates to the Internet. Godwin has been in the fray from the beginning, and grasps the issues involved as well or better than anyone, from the freewheeling ethos of the hackers to the impact of government and corporations on the freeest part of the information spectrum. More than 60 million Americans now have access to the Internet, and keeping this remarkable medium free is perhaps the most formidable task facing people who love to talk, write and think freely. This book is a critical guidebook for them. I can recommend it heartily.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmmm
Review: As someone who approached this book "blind" -- it was sent to me by an admirer who wants me to join his BBS -- I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The first two chapters were hard for me to relate to, but I really enjoyed it once I got into it. A very informative and useful book, actually, especially if you are not the most wired person in the world. Accessible and provocative.
Rating: 
Summary: This book lacks clear, current and relevant content.
Review: As Students from the University of Wisconsin -- Madison, we reviewed this book based upon electronic information rights. We found this book to be lacking clear, current and relevant content. The chapter on memes seemed lengthy and irrelevant to the over all point. Specifically the book, Cyber Rights was without a general theme. Godwin would begin a chapter with a clear point defending it well but would not tie it in to the whole book and other chapters. The organization of the book seemed to jump back and forth between defending free speech and proactively restricting it. Overall the book contains good legal precedence if the reader can understand the connection between the case and the issue at hand. In summary we felt the book was dry and did not clearly inform consumers of their electronic rights.
Rating:
Summary: By the leading crusader for free speech on the Internet
Review: Even as the Internet booms in popularity, its negative reputation also continues to grow. Many people see the Net as a threat to social stability, a haven for the lawless, or a cornucopia of pornography. Mike Godwin, widely regarded as one of our most influential online-rights activists, sees his mission as fighting this backlash against the Net. As staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- cyberspace's version of the ACLU -- he's been there since the beginning, fighting to extend the First Amendment to the online world in a series of high profile, highly charged legal battles. In CYBER RIGHTS: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age, Godwin provides a legal road map for the cyber world and addresses our fears about new technology and the new social consequences brought about by the Net. "Much of what people are told about cyberspace is wrong, and much of what they're told that's wrong is also frightening," he says. "Fear of a new medium is often used to justify treating it more destructively, and less rationally, than older forms of communication. I want people to see past the fears, which are usually overblown." Godwin views the Internet as the most liberating and egalitarian communications medium the world has ever seen. He traces the long-standing historical pattern in this country of giving less First Amendment protection to any new medium, and makes the case why the First Amendment must apply to freedom of speech on the Internet. Godwin also identifies the many problems raised by this freedom of expression, such as libel, sexual harassment, copyright issues, and cyberporn, and outlines many situations where the First Amendment doesn't protect speech on the Net. During what Godwin calls "the great Internet sex panic of 1995," he spearheaded a brilliant attack on Martin Rimm's study of online pornography, which became the foundation for a highly controversial Time magazine cover story. Godwin testified before the Senate Judiciary Commit! tee, debated Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition on Nightline, and prodded Time to admit that the study was "seriously flawed." Says Godwin, "As far as I know, this was the first instance in which anyone used this new, hyperdemocratic communications medium -- the Net -- to hold a traditional media powerhouse accountable for its mistakes." It turns out that almost all of the legal cases and controversies surrounding the Net raise First Amendment issues, which is why Mike Godwin and the EFF are at center stage. In CYBER RIGHTS he comments at length about all of the pivotal litigation he's been involved with, from the early anti-hacker panics that colored law enforcement activities in the early 1990s to the struggle between the Church of Scientology and its critics on the Net. A sample of his insights and observations: On ACLU v. Reno, the Supreme Court case challenging The Communications Decency Act: "Most of the important First Amendment questions hadn't even been raised until the twentieth century, so I thought it was at least possible that the First Amendment framework for cyberspace wouldn't be established until well into the twenty-first. Yet here, suddenly, the very legal status of cyberspace itself...would be put to the test in a genuine constitutional battle.... It was also an opportunity to fulfill one of my long-hoped-for dreams -- to see the EFF itself be party in a leading First Amendment case. It turned out to be the important case concerning freedom of speech online." On the libel cases of Blumenthal v. Drudge, and Blumenthal v. America Online: "The Drudge case is one in which the media -- both old and new -- have functioned just the way they're supposed to in an open society. Drudge's correction [his immediate retraction of reporting old rumors about the Blumenthal's domestic troubles and apology] has caught up with, and even outpaced, the original defamation. This fact is obvious to anyone who reflects on the case, but it is a fact that has ! nevertheless escaped virtually all reports about it. Drudge's libel case against Blumenthal raises a raft of First Amendment issues like who's a public figure, vicarious liability, and reputational damage, all of which undercut Blumenthal's case. What's really on trial here is not the Internet itself, but the degree to which mainstream journalists demonize the Net, and the usefulness of libel law itself." On Jake Baker and Santa Rosa Junior College, cases of freedom of speech on the Net: "In each of these cases are situations in which freedom of speech seems to be on a collision course with the legitimate needs of individuals and of society as a whole. These are two of the toughest cases I know of, because both involve speech that, while protected constitutionally, cannot easily be defended on any other basis. These hard cases are good for us because they test our commitment to the principles upon which we've based our society." Godwin offers provocative discussions of such topics as forgeries, copyright abuse, pseudonyms, right to privacy, cryptography, and the hidden agendas behind the current draft legislation entitled the "Electronic Communication Forwarding Act." He predicts that "the central political and social struggle in the next few decades will be over whether we can tolerate a technological framework that puts the full promise of 'freedom of the press' (and a much greater power to ensure communications privacy) into each individual's hands. The dominant threat will be whether governments, acting out of fear of both social instability and their own loss of control, institute repressive measures that limit or destroy the full democratic potential of this new medium." As both an essential primer on the legal issues of cyberspace, and an insightful call to action to protect our Constitutional rights, CYBER RIGHTS offers the invaluable thoughts and experiences of the online world's reigning freedom fighter.
Rating: 
Summary: A retread of old news
Review: Godwin's book is basically a rehash of previously published work. Pages 171-176, for example, were originally published in an Internet World column, though he acknowledges that nowhere. In fact, the entire book consists of such retread material spliced together, sometimes seamlessly, sometimes not. Many readers who haven't followed the free speech wars won't recognize this; they may simply wonder why the book is occasionally disjointed for no apparent reason. The other significant flaw in the book is that it stops with the CDA decision, in June 1997. For a book published in late 1998, it could have covered later material, especially since most of the book was cut-and-paste rather than new writing. It's a reasonable introduction to the censorship wars on the internet for readers which are completely unfamiliar with the history; but as for me, I'm pleased that I checked this book out from the library rather than purchasing it. -- Michael Sims
Rating:
Summary: Interesting look at legal, political, human aspects of law
Review: I bought this despite my fear that it would turn out to be yet another dry discussion of the same familiar five or six cases (Cubby, Stratton-Oakmont, Reno ..) concerning online behavior and liability. As an in-house attorney for an Internet startup, I figured I'd better be prepared to discuss the book with management and investors, irrespective of its actual utility. To my delight, the book turns out to be legally accurate and entertaining. Godwin's book - unlike others in the field - also reveals the human and political factors behind the cases and arguments which have now become familiar. I wouldn't have minded if it was a little bit less first-person focused, but that's a small quibble about what's overall an interesting and valuable book.
Rating:
Summary: Not rigid or bone dry
Review: I meant to identify myself by name as the media critic and author above..I'm Jon Katz and have written both for Wired and Hotwired. Godwin understands very well how much of fight it's been for the Net and the Web to remain free. That alone makes the book readable and important. This kind of freedom is always a fight, and Godwin's book an important tool in that fight. And I'm not a friend of his. I've exchanged some e-mails, but never met him. It's a very important and valuable book.
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