wjsullivan.net

Overloading the Machine

Under My Rug

October 27, 2001

Everything's great, thanks.
I went to write a letter.
It's insurmountable. Look over there.

No high-protein diet energizes
the wrapped loaf. The swept sea.
A four-cylinder
means two are striking.

Nose for the present,
you on time,
deliberating,
my favorite mug.
The soundtrack is out.

But if not for noise and valleys,
where could we debut? Mere
possession of facts is face.
But count some up;
cool and garnish.

On the Internet, however, there is no check on silly rules, because on the Internet, increasingly, rules are enforced not by a human but by a machine: Increasingly, the rules of copyright law, as interpreted by the copyright owner, get built into the technology that delivers copy-righted content. It is code, rather than law, that rules. And the problem with code regulations is that, unlike law, code has no shame.

-- Lawrence Lessig, "Free Culture"