Free speech online and offline

Esther Dyson famously argued that as the world will never be perfect, whether online or offline, it is foolish to expect higher standards on the Internet than we accept in real life. Legislators are now turning this argument around, arguing that they must restrict traditional offline freedoms to regulate cyberspace. The author asserts that there is much that individual engineers can do to influence the development of technology law. Engineers and lawyers have started talking about technology policy, while some academics promote cross-disciplinary research at the boundary between information security and economics.