Law in a Digital WorldThe world of law is a world of information. Rules, judgments, decisions, interpretations, and agreements all involve using and communicating information. Today, we are experiencing a significant transition, from letters fixed on paper to information stored electronically. The digital era, where information is created, stored, and communicated electronically, is quickly approaching, if not already here. The future of law will no longer be found in impressive buildings and leather-bound books, but in small pieces of silicon, in streams of light, and in millions of miles of wires and cable. It will be a world of new relationships and greater possibilities for individual and group communication, an environment where the value of information increases as it is shared. In Law in a Digital world, M. Ethan Katsh explores how these new technologies will alter one of our most central institutions. He considers the different ways in which people will not only electronically read and write, but also interact with our vast storehouses of legal knowledge and information. He envisions how sounds and pictures will play into the largely imageless print world of law, and looks at the future importance of graphic and nontextual communication. He explores how the flexible, personalized organization of data will transform the way we gather information, and whether information can or cannot be contained, raising questions of copyright and privacy. What happens to the law when information is more plentiful and accessible? What happens to those people who suddenly have access to information never before available? Does the use of information in a new form change the institution, the user, and those who come in contact with the user? And, what role does the lawyer play in all of this? For citizens, for lawyers, for all those who will be part of the digital world rushing toward us, Katsh answers these questions while considering the implications of this new era. |
Contents
| 3 | |
Computer Networks | 21 |
2 Electronic Information Places | 49 |
3 Law Libraries and Legal Information Places | 65 |
4 Interacting in Cyberspace | 92 |
Relationships in Cyberspace | 114 |
Visualizing in Cyberspace | 133 |
Working with Cyberspace | 172 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
allow appear become boundaries Bruce Sterling capabilities Clipper Chip Computer Networks contract copy copyright law Cornell Law School create culture cyberspace databases digital lawyer distribution documents e-mail elec electronic communication electronic environment electronic form electronic media electronic space employed example exist focus graphical hypertext Ibid images impact individual information environment information in electronic information technologies informational distance institutions Internet involves kind Law Journal law library Law Review legal information legal profession less Lexis Counsel Connect look machines Marshall McLuhan mass media mation medium ment metaphor move numbers occur Pamela Samuelson personal computer persons physical print environment print library professional programs puter reading relationships screen simply sources of information spatial stored telephone tion traditional tronic understand University Press users visual WESTLAW William Gibson words on paper World-Wide Web writing York
Popular passages
Page 4 - true. The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book—a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice.