cyberspace

cyberspace, amorphous, supposedly “virtual” world created by links between computers, Internet-enabled devices, servers, routers, and other components of the Internet’s infrastructure. As opposed to the Internet itself, however, cyberspace is the place produced by these links. It exists, in the perspective of some, apart from any particular nation-state. The term cyberspace was first used by the American-Canadian author William Gibson in 1982 in a story published in Omni magazine and then in his book Neuromancer. In this science-fiction novel, Gibson described cyberspace as the creation of a computer network in a world filled with artificially intelligent beings.

In the popular culture of the 1990s, cyberspace as a term was taken to describe the “location” in which people interacted with each other while using the Internet. This is the place in which online games occur, the land of chat rooms, and the home of instant-messaging conversations. In this sense, the location of the games or the chat room itself can be said to “exist” in cyberspace. Cyberspace has also become an important location for social and political discussion, with the popular emergence in the late 20th and the early 21st century of Web-based discussion boards and blogs. Blogs are typically produced by individuals who include their personal writing and often offer running commentary and links to other locations on the Web they deem of interest. With the emergence of blogging software, even those people unfamiliar with software programming for the Web can create their own blog. Thus, blogs can be seen as offering an opportunity for public discussion in cyberspace that is not available in the off-line world.

Early in the evolution of the Internet, in the middle of the 1990s, many users believed and argued that the world of cyberspace should be free from the regulations of any national government. John Perry Barlow’s “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” proposed that national governments should play no role in governing cyberspace. He argued that the community existing in cyberspace would create its own rules and manage conflicts apart from the laws and judiciary of any particular country. Particularly important was the protection of free expression and exchange among the “bodiless” personalities of cyberspace. This perspective would be particularly relevant if it were possible to hide the physical location and identity of a person participating in an activity “in cyberspace.”

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Since the emergence of the Internet, however, national governments and their analysts have shown the relevance of both national regulations and international agreements on the character of cyberspace. Those bodiless actors in cyberspace must access this other realm through their corporeal form, and thus they continue to be constrained by the laws governing their physical location. The Chinese government maintains strict controls on who is able to access the Internet and what content is available to them. The U.S. government limits certain online activities, such as the sharing of digital data, through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other legislation. In addition, the United States developed a strategy for the security of cyberspace in order to prevent and respond to attacks on the Internet infrastructure. The control of cyberspace is thus important not only because of the actions of individual participants but because the infrastructure of cyberspace is now fundamental to the functioning of national and international security systems, trade networks, emergency services, basic communications, and other public and private activities. Because national governments see potential threats to the security of their citizens and to the stability of their regimes arising within cyberspace, they act to control both access and content.

Organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), of which Barlow was a cofounder, have been formed with the intention of protecting the use of cyberspace as a location for the free sharing of knowledge, ideas, culture, and community. These organizations pursue this goal through a variety of activities, including opposition to legislation seen to be in conflict with free use of technology, initiation of court cases to preserve people’s rights, and publicity campaigns to inform and engage the public on issues of cyberspace and technology.