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I think we're seeing a decline in the idea that Code is Law. It was an interesting idea while it lasted, and there are still a *lot* of unaccountable infrastructures that are effectively making & enforcing private legislation. But technology is ultimately managed by people, and those people are subject to laws.
If you want a just society, there's no getting around politics; you need good laws and trustworthy governments to carry them out.
@natematias it is interesting that you tag that as “code is law”! In my reading, Lessig’s formulation acknowledged—even in the heady days of 1998(?)—that “east coast code” and “west coast code” were interdependent. So I associate the phrase with the claim that code is *a* law, not with the claim that code is *the* law.
Maybe I need to put on my housing hat and write “code is (zoning) law”, emphasizing that software code’s legal role is real, but a creature of layered systems?
@luis_in_brief yeah, this is less a response to Lessig directly as it is a response to how people think and talk about that aspect of Lessig's writing.
Musk's attempt to rebuff Brazilian law because he has satellites is obviously naive—in interesting ways.
And yes to your other points. I too would be very interested to read more of a summary and review about speech law and Latin American political history. It's something I wish I understood more.
@natematias not an expert either—and I suspect that given the regular pendulum of dictatorship <-> democracy in the region, it's likely that the topic simply isn't well-developed (either judicially or academically) in the way Americans expect.
Which might be reason for American civil libertarians, resting comfortably on 250 years of history, to be humble in their assertions of what is Best in places where democracy is more precarious. But uh... that's not what I'm seeing.
@luis_in_brief wouldn't be the first time in respect to Latin American politics, alas.
