Codifying Cyberspace

Can the Internet regulate itself? Faced with a range of 'harms' and conflicts associated with the new media - from gambling to pornography - many governments have resisted the temptation to regulate, opting instead to encourage media providers to develop codes of conduct and technical measures to regulate themselves. Codifying Cyberspace looks at media self-regulation in practice, in a variety of countries. It also examines the problems of balancing private censorship against fundamental rights to freedom of expression and privacy for media users. This book is the first full-scale study of self-regulation and codes of conduct in these fast-moving new media sectors and is the result of a three-year Oxford University study funded by the European Commission.

Damian Tambini is Lecturer at the London School of Economics. He was previously Head of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Oxford University. He is also Associate Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the Oxford Internet Institute and at Oxford University's Said Business School. Tambini's previous publications include Privacy and the Media (2003), Collective Identities in Action: Theories of Ethnic Conflict (2002), New News: Impartial Broadcasting in the Digital Age (2002), Nationalism in Italian Politics (2001), Citizenship, Markets, and the State (2000) and Cyberdemocracy (1998). Danilo Leonardi is Head of PCMLP (Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy) at the University of Oxford's Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. He also co-ordinates the IMLA (International Media Lawyers Association), an international network of lawyers working in the areas of media law, media freedom and media policy. He is a founding member of the Legal Human Academy, a group dedicated to innovation in methods for teaching law. Chris T. Marsden LL.B., LL.M. is Professor of Law at the University of Sussex School of Law. He is the author of Net Neutrality: Towards a Co-Regulatory Solution, Internet Co-Regulation, and three other books.

1. The 'Classic' Model of Self-Regulation on the Internet  2. Self-Regulation of Media Content in Europe  3. Methodology and Media Self-Regulatory Codes of Conduct  4. Press Councils: Codes and Analysis of Codes in the EU  5. Mechanisms for Self-Regulation in the Broadcasting Sector in the EU  6. Internet Content and Self-Regulation  7. ISP Codes of Conduct  8. Self-Regulation of the Electronic Games Industry  9. Self-Regulation of the Film Industry  10. Mobile Telephony-Delivered Internet Services and Codes of Conduct to Protect Minors from Adult Content  11. The Privatisation of Censorship?: Self-Regulation and Freedom of Expression  12. Conclusion