Intellectual Property in the Information Age: The Politics of Expanding Ownership Rights

comes increasingly obvious that computers are prone to information sharing instead of information secrecy. We will see hackers going to jail for longer periods of time. We will see the boundaries of what is legitimate computer behavior clearly defined by example. Hackers will become more like criminals and less like the next-door neighbor. The threat will be both foreign and domestic. We will label this threat the "war against hackers." In the process, civil liberties will be threatened as the government seeks to make an example out of someone. This is beginning today. It is not simply the fate of hackers that hangs in the balance. How freedom of information, property, and privacy are defined are central to this discussion. The hacker has become a symbol of danger, a symbol necessary for protecting information, and producing a U.S. identity.

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