News Release

August 25, 2003

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Who Rules the Net?
Internet Governance and Jurisdiction

As the Internet matures as a global superhighway for communications and commerce, governments have begun to consider how and whether to regulate it. The contributors to Who Rules the Net? ponder online commerce, questions of governance, and real and potential threats to free speech posed by such rules. Is the Internet a truly borderless medium that governments should not regulate? Or can territorial standards and rules be applied? Who will decide?

The contributors, including Rep. Christopher Cox, Michael Geist, Robert Corn-Revere, Kurt Wimmer, and David G. Post, answer these questions, discuss the future of the Internet, and address the matter of who should be in control of regulating this medium, if anyone. From free speech to privacy protection to taxation and antitrust, Who Rules the Net? explores many of proposed rules of the road for the Internet.

Vinton Cerf, widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet" and senior vice president of WorldCom, notes in his foreword: "While no one rules the Internet, the aggregate interest of millions seek to influence what these rules are or will be. Out of a seething cauldron of conflicting interests and opinions, the Internet is emerging as a key element of our 21st century information and communications environment. Who rules the Net? You and I and 600 million others, in some measure."