Condensed from Codev2, by Lawrence Lessig <http://codev2.cc/>
.law.cyber
His name was IBEX, and no one knew who he was. I probably could
have figured it out--I had the data to track him down--but after he did
what he did, I did not want to know who he was. He was probably a student in
the very first class about cyberspace that I taught, and I would have failed
him, because I was furious about what he had done. The class was "The Law of
Cyberspace" . . .
The character of IBEX was bad; this much was clear from the start.
Before IBEX appeared, life in the space flourished. At first people were
timid, but polite. Brave souls would post an idea or a joke, and
conversation would continue around the idea or joke for a bit. After a
couple of weeks the conversation would become quite intense. Patterns of
exchange began. People had questions; others had answers. People stumbled as
they spoke, but they were beginning, slowly, to speak.
About a month and a half into the course, the group reached an apex of
sorts. It became the best it would be. I remember the moment well. Early on
a spring afternoon I noticed that someone had posted the first line of a
poem. By the end of the day, without any coordination, the class had
finished the poem. There had been rhythm to the exchanges; now there was
rhyme. Things hummed in the newsgroup, and people were genuinely surprised
about this space.
It was then that IBEX appeared. I think it was just after we had
discussed anonymity in class, so maybe his later claims to have been serving
a pedagogical role were true. But he appeared after one of our
classes--appeared, it seemed, just to issue an attack on another member of
the class. Not an attack on his ideas, but on him. So vicious and so
extensive was this attack that when I read it, I didn't know quite how to
understand it. Could it have been real? Almost immediately, conversation in
the group died. It just stopped. No one said anything, as if everyone were
afraid that the monster that had entered our space would turn his fury on
one of them next. Until, that is, the victim responded, with an answer that
evinced the wounds of the attack. IBEX's words had cut. The victim was angry
and hurt, and he attacked back.
But his salvo only inspired another round of viciousness, even more
vile than the first. With this, other members of the class could not resist
joining in. IBEX was attacked by a string of characters in the class as
cowardly for hiding behind a pseudonym and as sick for what he had said.
None of this had any effect. IBEX came back, again and again, with an
ugliness that was as extreme as it was unrelenting. The space had been
changed. Conversation fell off, people drifted away. Some no doubt left
because they were disgusted with what had happened; others did not want to
be IBEX's next target. There was a brief period of life in the space as
people rallied to attack IBEX. But as he came back again and again, each
time more vicious than the last, most simply left. (One time IBEX came back
to protest that he had been wronged; in the week before, he claimed, he had
not posted anything, but someone wearing the white sheet of IBEX had posted
in IBEX's name, so that he, the real IBEX, had been defamed. The class had
little sympathy.)
--
Is this really happening?
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