Abstract
The Internet community—just like all other speech communities—ought to be afforded First Amendment protections. I don't see any reason why Internet speech should be treated any less favorably than other kinds of speech. But the vastly overblown claim that the communications medium somehow deserves to be put outside normal legal constraints--because it's so global, or because it's so different—is self-defeating. It substitutes generalities and sentiments for real thinking. The kind of analysis we've seen at this conference—the kind of debate we've had here—is very useful, because we're talking about the specifics of what legal constraints should be allowed. Not whether there should be regulation, for clearly there must be. The real question is, what should they be and how far should it go?
Recommended Citation
Hon. Alex Kozinski, Keynote Colloquy: Finding Justice in the Internet Dimension, 20 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 619 (1997).
