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January 18, 2007
Greatest paragraph ever
[Picture]
Porn in real space is zoned from kids. Whether because of laws (banning the sale of porn to minors), or norms (telling us to shun those who do sell porn to minors), or the market (porn costs money), it is hard in real space for kids to buy porn. In the main, not everywhere; hard, not impossible. But on balance the regulations of real space have an effect. That effect keeps kids from porn.
These real-space regulations depend upon certain features in the 'design' of real space. It is hard in real space to hide that you are a kid. Age in real space is a self-authenticating fact. Sure--a kid may try to disguise that he is a kid; he may don a mustache or walk on stilts. But costumes are expensive, and not terribly effective. And it is hard to walk on stilts. Ordinarily a kid transmits that he is a kid; ordinarily, the seller of porn knows a kid is a kid, and so the seller of porn, either because of laws or norms, can at least identify underage customers. Self-authentication makes zoning in real space easy.
Citation: Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach Us, 113 Harv. L. Rev. 501, 503-504 (1999).
Well, Professor Lessig, I have never tried to walk on stilts, but that seems like an extreme method of attempting to get porn. I mean, don't these kids know somebody who can get them porn? Either way, I will agree. Walking on stilts is not easy. If it was, everyone would walk on stilts.
I did not expect to find that in what has so far been an otherwise dry book. Actually, most law textbooks at least occasionally try to put something amusing in them. My class in torts introduced us to the basic idea of negligence with a line of cases that all had one factor in common: people slipping on banana peels. If my memory properly serves me, you can't sue a guy and win if you slip on a banana peel unless the responsible person had notice (or should have known) that a banana peel was on the ground. Unless you're talking about a public carrier, like a railroad. They're usually held to a higher standard.
entry no. 722
Posted by oz115 at January 18, 2007 10:55 PM