Ludlow cover 7/7/01 2:08 PM Page 1 Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias Crypto Anarchy, Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias edited by Peter Ludlow In Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias, Peter Ludlow extends the approach he used so successfully in High Noon on the Electronic Frontier, offering a collection of writings that reflect the eclectic nature of the online world, as well as its tremendous energy and creativity. This time the subject is the emergence of governance structures within online communities and the visions of political sovereignty shaping some of those communities. Ludlow views virtual communities as laboratories for conducting experiments in the Peter Ludlow construction of new societies and governance structures. While many online experiments will fail, Ludlow argues that given the synergy of the online world, new and superior governance structures may emerge. Indeed, utopian visions are not out of place, provided that we understand the new utopias to edited by be fleeting localized “islands in the Net” and not permanent institutions. The book is organized in five sections. The first section considers the sovereignty of the Internet. The second section asks how widespread access to resources such as Pretty Good Privacy and anonymous remailers allows the possibility of “Crypto Anarchy”—essentially carving out space for activities that lie outside the purview of nation-states and other traditional powers. The Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, third section shows how the growth of e-commerce is raising questions of legal jurisdiction and taxation for which the geographic boundaries of nation- states are obsolete. The fourth section looks at specific experimental governance and Pirate Utopias structures evolved by online communities. The fifth section considers utopian and anti-utopian visions for cyberspace. Peter Ludlow is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. editor Ludlow, Digital Communication series “An excellent book. Ludlow juxtaposes contrasting views in a way that amuses and enlightens.” —Amy S. Bruckman, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology Cover images: © 2001 PhotoDisc, Inc. The MIT Press Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 http://mitpress.mit.edu 0-262-62151-7 ,!7IA2G2-gcbfbj!:t;K;k;K;k Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias Digital Communication Edward Barrett, editor The Nurnberg Funnel: Designing Minimalist Instruction for Practical Computer Skill, John M. Carroll, 1990 Hypermedia and Literary Studies, edited by Paul Delany and George P. Landow, 1991 Rhetoric, Innovation, Technology: Case Studies of Technical Communication in Technology Transfers, Stephen Doheny-Farina, 1992 Sociomedia: Multimedia, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Knowledge, edited by Edward Barrett, 1992 The Digital Word: Text-Based Computing in the Humanities, edited by George P. Landow and Paul Delany, 1993 Contextual Media: Multimedia and Interpretation, edited by Edward Barrett and Marie Redmond, 1995 High Noon on the Electronic Frontier, Peter Ludlow, 1996 Forward through the Rearview Mirror: Reflections on and by Marshall McLuhan, edited by Paul Benedetti and Nancy DeHart, 1997 From Web to Workplace: Designing Open Hypermedia Systems, Kaj Grønb0k and Randall H. Trigg, 1999 Electric Rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric, Oralism, and a New Literacy, Kathleen E. Welch, 1999 Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias, edited by Peter Ludlow, 2001 Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias edited by Peter Ludlow The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa- tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Adobe Sabon in QuarkXPress by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crypto anarchy, cyberstates, and pirate utopias / edited by Peter Ludlow. p. cm. — (Digital communication) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-12238-3 (hc: alk. paper)—ISBN 0-262-62151-7 (pbk: alk. paper) 1. Cyberspace—Social aspects. 2. Cyberspace—Political aspects. 3. Internet— Social aspects. 4. Internet—Political aspects. 5. Anarchy. 6. State, The. I. Ludlow, Peter. II. Series. HM851 .C78 2001 00-064597 per i nipoti Jay, Eliza, Robert, Stefanie, Giuliana, Daniela and in memory of John Calvin Robertson, who visited many Temporary Autonomous Zones in his 43 years Let us admit that we have attended parties where for one brief night a republic of gratified desires was attained. Shall we not confess that the politics of that night have more reality and force for us than those of, say, the entire U.S. Government? —Hakim Bey Contents Series Foreword xiii Preface xv About the Contributors xxi 1 New Foundations: On the Emergence of Sovereign Cyberstates and Their Governance Structures 1 Peter Ludlow I The Sovereignty of Cyberspace? 25 2 A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace 27 John Perry Barlow 3 Getting Our Priorities Straight 31 David Brin 4 United Nodes of Internet: Are We Forming a Digital Nation? 39 David S. Bennahum 5 HyperMedia Freedom 47 Richard Barbrook II Crypto Anarchy 59 6 The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto 61 Timothy C. May 7 Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities 65 Timothy C. May 8 A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto 81 Eric Hughes x Contents 9 The Future of Cryptography 85 Dorothy E. Denning 10 Afterword to “The Future of Cryptography” 103 Dorothy E. Denning 11 Re: Denning’s Crypto Anarchy 105 Duncan Frissell 12 Hiding Crimes in Cyberspace 115 Dorothy E. Denning and William E. Baugh Jr. III Shifting Borders: How VR Is Claiming Jurisdiction from RL 143 13 Law and Borders: The Rise of Law in Cyberspace 145 David R. Johnson and David G. Post 14 Anarchy, State, and the Internet: An Essay on Lawmaking in Cyberspace 197 David G. Post 15 Prop 13 Meets the Internet: How State and Local Government Finances Are Becoming Road Kill on the Information Superhighway 213 Nathan Newman IV The Emergence of Law and Governance Structures in Cyberspace 243 16 Virtual(ly) Law: The Emergence of Law in LambdaMOO 245 Jennifer L. Mnookin 17 “help manners”: Cyberdemocracy and Its Vicissitudes 303 Charles J. Stivale 18 Due Process and Cyberjurisdiction 329 David R. Johnson 19 Virtual Magistrate Project Press Release 339 20 Virtual Magistrate Issues Its First Decision 343 V Utopia, Dystopia, and Pirate Utopias 347 21 Utopia Redux 349 Karrie Jacobs Contents xi 22 The God of the Digerati 353 Jedediah S. Purdy 23 Californian Ideology 363 Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron 24 Bit Rot 389 Mark Dery 25 The Temporary Autonomous Zone 401 Hakim Bey Appendix: Interview with Noam Chomsky on Anarchism, Marxism, and Hope for the Future 435 Kevin Doyle Name Index 451 Index of Corporations, Organizations, Agencies, and Other Groups 459 Subject Index 463 Series Foreword Digital communication is one of the most exciting, rapidly expanding fields of study and practice throughout the world, as witnessed by the increasing number of Web sites and users of the Internet, as well as pub- lication and use of multimedia CD-ROM titles in schools, homes, and corporate environments. In addition, Web and multimedia publications have created a vast secondary literature of scholarly analysis in a range of subject areas. Professional societies and degree-granting programs devoted to digital communication have steadily increased. And the lan- guage and concepts of digital life have become central in popular culture. In cyberspace the roles of writer and audience are no longer static but dynamic; the concept of text is no longer fixed but fluid. Computational technology has delivered us a powerful tool for the creation, presenta- tion, exchange, and annotation of a text (in words, images, video, and audio)—so powerful that we speak in terms of transparent and seamless information environments that integrate all media. We are witnessing a profound revolution in communication and learning in a post-Gutenberg world. The MIT Press series on digital communication will present advanced research into all aspects of this revolutionary change in our forms of expression, thought, and being. This research will be published in traditional book format or as Web sites or multimedia CD-ROM titles as demanded by content. As this series finds its expression in hard-copy or in digital format, it will seek to explore and define new genres of thought and expression offered by digital media. Edward Barrett Preface When I edited High Noon on the Electronic Frontier (MIT Press, 1996), my principle strategy was to include a number of nonacademic “rants and manifestos” that would raise philosophical issues in an interesting and provocative way. I explained the genesis of the strategy as follows (pp. xvii–xviii): In the fall of 1994 I taught an undergraduate course entitled “Philosophical Issues on the Electronic Frontier.” My plan was to lead with Julian Dibbell’s Village Voice article “A Rape in Cyberspace” and then move to more standard readings that might typically be taught in a course on computer ethics. Things began well enough, but the class slipped into a collective coma when we moved on to the standard academic readings in this area. Accordingly, I did what any reasonable person would do under the same circumstances—I sold out. I went back to assigning the more “in your face” rants and manifestos that are easy enough to find in cyberspace but virtually impossible to find in textbooks. When I turned to the more gonzo readings, the class woke up (which always helps when you are trying to teach something) and it actually began to think seriously about some of the deeper issues underlying these assigned electronic rants. This shouldn’t be surprising, really. Most of the academic writing on cyberspace is just awful. It either reeks of half-learned post-modern cant, or is a dense thicket of bad sociology.