problem of perspective in Internet law, The

Georgetown Law Journal, Jan 2003 by Kerr, Orin S

I. THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVES IN INTERNET LAW

A. THE PROBLEM OF PERSPECTIVE

In the 1999 science fiction thriller The Matrix,7 Keanu Reeves plays a computer hacker named "Neo" who learns that the reality he has known since birth is merely a virtual reality created by a computer network known as the Matrix. The real Neo lies in a semicomatose state attached to the network, to which he and others have been connected by advanced computers that have taken over the world and sap energy from humans while occupying their minds with virtual reality. Neo ends up joining the rebel forces trying to destroy the Matrix, and the movie jumps several times between the virtual world inside the Matrix and the real world outside of the Matrix. The movie presents us with two different realities, two existing worlds. The first reality is the virtual world that we experience inside the Matrix, and the second is the "real" world that we experience outside the Matrix.

In addition to being a fun movie, The Matrix points out an important problem that arises when we try to understand the nature of computer networks in general and the Internet in particular. Like Neo confronting the Matrix, we can think about the Internet in two ways, virtual and real. The virtual perspective is like the perspective inside the Matrix: it accepts the virtual world of cyberspace as akin to a reality. Of course, unlike Neo, we know all along that the virtual world that the computer generates is only virtual. But as we try to make sense of what the Internet is, to understand what we experience online, we might decide to treat that virtual world as if it were real.

I will call this virtual point of view the internal perspective of the Internet. The internal perspective adopts the point of view of a user who is logged on to the Internet and chooses to accept the virtual world of cyberspace as a legitimate construct.8 To this user, a computer connected to the Internet provides a window to a virtual world that is roughly analogous to the physical world of real space. The user can use her keyboard and mouse to go shopping, send mail, visit a chat room, participate in an online community, or do anything else she can find online.9 The technical details of what the computers attached to the Internet actually do "behind the scenes" don't particularly matter. What matters is the virtual world of cyberspace that the user encounters and interacts with when he or she goes online.

We can also understand the Internet from a different perspective. Like Neo when he is outside the Matrix, we can look at the Internet from the point of view of the physical world, rather than the virtual one. I will call this the external perspective of the Internet. The external perspective adopts the viewpoint of an outsider concerned with the functioning of the network in the physical world rather than the perceptions of a user.

From this external viewpoint, the Internet is simply a network of computers located around the world and connected by wires and cables.10 The hardware sends, stores, and receives communications using a series of common protocols.11 Keyboards provide sources of input to the network, and monitors provide destinations for output. When the Internet runs properly, trillions of zeros and ones zip around the world, sending and receiving communications that the computers connected to the network can translate into commands, text, sound, and pictures.