Defining Cyberspace (Finding Real Virtue in the Place of Virtual Reality)

Abstract

The law has neither defined cyberspace nor its values. As a result, the attempt to apply legal rules of "ordinary" space to cyberspace fails to address either the ordinary or the extraordinary features of the new space. This Article proposes that cyberspace be defined as an embodied switched network for moving information traffic, further characterized by degrees of access, navigation, information-activity, augmentation (and trust). Legal conflicts, whether sounding in contract, trademark, copyright, personal jurisdiction, choice of law, or some other basis, occasionally occur in an objective cyberspace whose values can be sufficiently operationalized for legal analysis. If cyberspace were so defined, the law could better respond to new technological uses.

Keywords: Cyberspace, Objective cyberspace, Definition, Embodied switched network, Access, navigation, information-activity, augmentation, trust