Rating: 
Summary: Let's wait for version 2.0
Review: The book does provide a number of insights that the other reviewers applaud. Amongst other things, his conclusion is that changes in Internet architecture will result in more government involvement and will give government the ability to monitor activities and so on. This is fairly obvious, as one would be very surprised if the government didn't play an active role in the evolution of something as significant to our society as the Internet. In his focus on the future lack of anonymity, he neglects the numerous other factors that will be considered when a new Internet architecture is unveiled. Concerns over things such as network bandwidth, address shortages, evolving presentation technologies will all play as big of a role in deciding the future architecture of the web as government agencies.I must say the overall writing style of the book is not all that good. It's not that the book is difficult to read; most of the major points are plain obvious. What I found obnoxious is his constant pointing out that he's a lawyer and a professor at Harvard. The layout of the chapters is also bad. It's more of a textbook than an actual book that you might read for leisure. Each section begins with a summary of sorts, telling you what will be discussed in this section and what was discussed in the previous one. For a textbook that one might skim or read only certain parts of this is a good idea, but for a regular book that one will read sequentially this is repetitive and annoying. The editor should give this book another pass before sending it out again.
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps this will awaken some interest.
Review: The number of books, fiction and non-fiction, dealing with seminal issues of privacy, individual sovereignty-freedom if you will, has exploded. Each offers a slant on what is the inherent disability of all machine processes. People are "fuzzy", unpredictable, loosely quantifiable only by the most broad statistical analysis. Lessig attempts to put a semblance of rationality on impulses and agendas that challenge rationality. Do you want to know what others can know about you? Better yet, do you understand the implications of the "frictionless' advance of technologies that put each individual into a glass case, available for review, reward, punishment, or to satisfy greed? These are serious issues. They extend far beyond the old media's contrarian assaults on common sense and decency so often the leit motif of the ALCU et al. The issues here are chilling. For a lot less money and a great deal more information as to the real world construction of Lessig's work you will have to read "Transfer-the end of the beginning" by Jerry Furland. The concerns are bedrock, immoveable by casual reassurances. This is serious. It will have a profound impact on all of us. And it is virtually (no pun intended) unstoppable. We have, through incredible advances in information technologies, created our own enslavement. I am using a small piece of it now to write this review. Cosmic irony. Another author to examine in addition to Furland is Reg Whitaker, "The End of Privacy". Get a grip onto something solid. What we are seeing today is a dissolving of every natural and long evolved barrier. Good fences make good neighbors. Your fences are long gone and a rapacious unquenchable government is in the vanguard, applauded and buttressed by industry and media alike. On second thought, read "Transfer" immediately. You will have time to review others after you reviewed the best.
Rating:
Summary: Good overview for outsiders - common sense for many
Review: The premise of Code is that the architecture of the internet and not any one country's laws controls what one can do on it. One clear evidence of architecture controlling our lives is our dependence on cars. Most American cities grew large after the car had become common. Hence they have limited transportation. Hence one is expected to own a car to live a normal life. Similarly the architecture of the internet will make certain activities much easier than others. The difference is the internet is currently being formed and we can choose what we want it to be if we act now (or in 1999 anyway).
Lessig identifies four factors that influence what any individual can and will do on or offline: law, architecture (physics in the real world), social norms, market forces (since corporations have so much control over what gets done). This way of looking at things combined with the cute little diagrams may clarify things you already know about the internet. There is also much discussion threaded through the book of legal issues in the past that may prove applicable to cyberspace now.
Basically I tried to read this, but found it a bit dumbed down. I skimmed it and it was good for me to look closer at some of the relationships in play on the development of the internet, or maybe to solidify things in my head. However it didn't tell me much and Lessig keeps repeating himself blah blah blah and then going into rapturous praise of open source code and newsgroups and other old hat thing on the internet. (I realize that this was published in 1999 but I don't feel that it would have been new info for me then either.)
If you are the sort of person who has read the Jargon File, then you are unlikely to get much out of Code (except if you are interested in legal history about privacy, IP etc - but then again the premise of the book is that architecture more than law influences what can and can't be done online). However, for an outsider interested in learning about the subcultures that exist online and more about the sociology type aspects of computing this would be a useful introduction.
Rating:
Summary: Good points, but dry and dull
Review: There's no doubt that Lessig is brilliant and knows his material. However, his standpoint is from Constitutional Law, and doesn't incorporate more views of Intellectual Property into his arguments. As a Harvard boy myself, I even find his viewpoints too right-coast for me. And it's too American focused. My only complaint is I still haven't bought into the EFF et al view of the Internet being free and utopic. You sort of have to subscribe to that underlying belief system in order to fully accept Professor Lessig's ideas. The reading is dry as well and not meant for casual reading. It's perfect for any MBA or JD program covering "cyberspace".
Rating: 
Summary: A hard read, but important enough to make it worth it
Review: This book is fairly difficult reading. It is fairly technical both from legal and technology point of view. But the point it makes is important enough that reading it is worth the effort. The point is basically that all of us should think about how we want "cyberspace" to be. It is not naturally any one way. We may have been led to believe that cyberspace is "naturally" libertarian. Lessig does a good job explaining that is the original architecture, but as the internet evolves from the research based ARPANET to the commerce based WWW, new architectures will evolve that will support new abilities for control and monitoring. While I don't agree with all his suggestions (he seems to think that open source code is the answer to most of the problems) I do agree that these issues need to be considered and discussed by all citizens. This book is a good starting point for those discussions.
Rating:
Summary: Best Customer Relationship Management book.
Review: This book makes you truly quite sensitive about your Customer - read chapter 7 before reading any other CRM books out there. If any, be aware that not only can your customer switch to your competition but he/she has rights that is equally enforceable. Nothing will make a business more sensitive to a customer's needs than Uncle Sam and his boys. Try violating your customer's privacy for one. This book is part of many Cyberspace Law classes (it was at UConn Law School) and should also be for many of the MBA Marketing (Consumer Relation) courses. Well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not all that dark...
Review: This book showed what people have called a "dark" outlook on the future of the net. Yes, its more restrictive but a main point of the book is that there is some control left to be determined. This is a more realistic view of what the Internet is going to be then anything else I've heard, and I would suggest reading this book to anyone who is intrested in the future of the Internet.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Important Book
Review: This book, "Code," is one of the most important books I've read in a long time. His thesis, that "Code Is Law," that the "coders" have become de facto lawmakers, and that we, as a society, MUST understand the importance of the Internet's architecture, is presented in a very clear manner. Lessig has a real gift for taking complex legal/political arguments and making them clear for the lay person. As a law student, I find it very easy to get lulled into the belief that the major legal and policy decisions have already been made. Such a belief would probably always be mistaken, and it's totally mistaken now. In the next few years, major decisions (with stunning Constitutional and social consequences) will be made. Who will make these decisions, and what the substantive content of these decisions will be, are open questions. The Internet has great potential -- for both good and bad. What the Internet will look like in a decade, how free it will be, how intrusive it will be, will depend entirely on decisions being made now. This book takes the confusing world of Internet controversies and pulls them together to make a compelling and persuasive call to AWARENESS. I recommend this book very highly.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Important Book
Review: This book, "Code," is one of the most important books I've read in a long time. His thesis, that "Code Is Law," that the "coders" have become de facto lawmakers, and that we, as a society, MUST understand the importance of the Internet's architecture, is presented in a very clear manner. Lessig has a real gift for taking complex legal/political arguments and making them clear for the lay person. As a law student, I find it very easy to get lulled into the belief that the major legal and policy decisions have already been made. Such a belief would probably always be mistaken, and it's totally mistaken now. In the next few years, major decisions (with stunning Constitutional and social consequences) will be made. Who will make these decisions, and what the substantive content of these decisions will be, are open questions. The Internet has great potential -- for both good and bad. What the Internet will look like in a decade, how free it will be, how intrusive it will be, will depend entirely on decisions being made now. This book takes the confusing world of Internet controversies and pulls them together to make a compelling and persuasive call to AWARENESS. I recommend this book very highly.
Rating:
Summary: Great book on Cyberspace and a must read for people in the t
Review: This is another great book that discusses what is going on in cyberspace today (or 1999 when it was written) first by defining cyberspace as a place where we can create personalities and have the ability to speak like we would never do in the real world. The book then goes on to discuss how the internet is regulated or not regulated and what the internet can and should become. The book starts out by discussing multiple forms of regulation and just because technology makes it easier to monitor or regulate does not mean that it is right or legal. The book also discusses what things should be regulated and how and who should regulate it. The next chapters go into Free Speech, Intellectual Property, Privacy and other freedoms we have and should fight to protect. The book talks about Open Source vrs Closed Source software and how regulation can and is added to each. One of the solutions of the book is to offer transparent regulation that allows user to know what is regulated. This is possible and is happening now in Open Source software but is not happening in closed source software. This is an excellent book that should help call us to action that will help provide the right kind of regulation while ensuring our freedoms or not reduced. This is a great book and I would recommend it..
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