This week we deal with controversies about law and order on the network. We look at hackers, crackers, cypherpunks and the like, at the attempt by security agencies to enforce a 'crackdown' on the electronic frontier, and at the reasons why digital technologies are causing massive confusion to established concepts of property, trespass and theft.

                                                           Don't forget to participate on Caucus.

A good place to start is with John Perry Barlow's classic articles, Crime_and_Puzzlement and Crime and Puzzlement 2 .The organization that Barlow and others founded as a result of their contact with hackers-- The Electronic Frontier Foundation --has become become one of the most important defenders of civil liberties in cyberspace: check it out. Of the many interesting books on hacking, one of the best is Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier --conveniently available in digital form. There is fascinating piece about a lesser known 'cybercop'crackdown on alleged hackers--this time in Italy--by Peter Ludlow, at the end of his excellent edited collection of pieces on cyberspace issues High Noon on the Electronic Frontier (should be on reserve in the Weldon Library)--also available on-line at http://semlab2.sbs.suny...sers/pludlow/peter1.txt . Also, take a look at 2600: The Hacker Quarterly.