6:30 a. m. coffee in hand. A few more notes from Code:

"The law is best understood through stories - stories that teach what is later summarized in a catalog of rules. ... For now, just focus on the stories." (p. 9)

"As a child, you grew up learning the physics that governed the world of Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote;... your children will grow up making the world of Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. They will define the space and then live out the story. Their choices will make that space real. ... (Isn't it extraordinary the way these people waste time? While you and I spend up to seventy hours a week working for firms we don't own and building futures we're not sure we'll enjoy, these people are designing and building things and making a life, even if it is only a virtual one. Scandalous.)" (p. 11)

"Regulable. ... The term is comparative, not absolute. - in some place, at some time, a certain behavior will be more regulable than at another place and in another time. (p. 14).

"A 'worm' is a bit of computer code that is spit out onto the Net and works its way into the systems of vulnurable computers. It is not a 'virus' because it doesn't attach itself to other programs and interfere with their operation. It is just a bit of extra code that does what the code writer says." (p. 17). I appreciate this definition for two reasons. One, it clarifies a distinction in my mind between worm and virus. Two, I just experienced such a worm on my own computer three days ago (PrettyPark). Talk about relevance!

"One of the defining features of modern life is the emergence of technologies that make data collection and processing extraordinarily efficient." (p. 19)

Four themes:

• Regulability
• Regulation by Code [some architectures are more regulable than others]
• Competing Sovereigns [regulation by whom? Who decides?]
• Latent Ambiguity [due to new scenarios such as cyberspace]

"There's a meme about cyberspace that marks natives of its first generation - an idea that defines first-generation thought about the place. Cyberspace, it is said, cannot be regulated. ... Nature. Essence. Innate. The way things are. This kind of rhetoric should raise suspicions in any context. ... If there is any place where nature has no rule, it is in cyberspace. If there is any place that is constructed, cyberspace is it." (p. 24)

"But how cyberspace is is not how it has to be. ... The possible architectures of the Net are many. ... the Net is evolving in a very particular direction: from an unregulable space to one that is highly regulable." (p. 25)

The why is commerce. ... Architectures are being added to make it serve commerce more efficiently. Regulability will be a by-product of these changes. (p. 30)

"Real-space life carries with it this mix of authenticating and authenticated credentials. ... the regulability of real-space life depends upon these credentials." (p. 31)

"How then could we layer architectures of identity onto the existing identity-ignorant architectures of TCP/IP? ...

• passwords
• cookies
• digital signatures [use cryptography]

"Encryption technologies are the most important technological breakthrough in the last one thousand years." (p. 35) "Encrypt a message, and only those with the proper key can open and read it." (p. 36)

Here are a few acronyms:

• PKI - Public Key Infrastructure (uses a public/private 2-key system)
• SSL - Secure Socket Layer (Netscape)
• SET - Secure Electronic Transaction (used by credit card companies)

The future architecture for e-commerce will have to contain:

1. authentication (ensure identity of person you ar dealing with)
2. authorization (ensure person is sanctioned for a particular function)
3. privacy (ensure others cannot see the transaction)
4. integrity (ensure the transmission is not altered enroute)
5. nonrepudiation (ensure sender cannot deny the message)