I do not really buy the necessity of a Digital Bill of Rights - though I had not realized the extent of the validity of Lessig’s point that technology may be less subservient to law and the Constitution today, it still seems that the values expressed in the Bill of Rights offer general directions to follow in creating new statutes for the digital age.

Policies that are extensions of First Amendment:

1-Intellectual Property Rights - copyright rules ought to last for a finite period of time. This value, I feel, is already made pretty clear in the existing Copyright Clause, but this rule is not being followed. How long that finite period should be is questionable - I’m leaning on the side that the length of time should be very for different types of media, ideas, etc.

2-Net neutrality is vital to the lifeblood of the Internet. Using an extension of the original reasoning for the Copyright clause, the prospect of ideas flowing on the basis of money and finances rather than their own merits is troubling for the future of a free, democratic society.

3-Allow anonymity when the protocol allows a governmental backdoor, but this backdoor can only be exploited with a super high standard of probable cause.

4-Spam is wonderful. Unsolicited messages should be sent freely, assuming they are not participating in criminal activity.

Policies that are extensions of Fourth Amendment and Katz:

1-Data analysis of reasonably required information is an excellent idea, but collecting broad-reaching private information about people with justification beyond vague national security needs is unreasonable. Don’t do it.

2-Computers have evolved into being an extension one’s personal realm, much like their own home. People have a reasonable expectation of privacy for them.

3-Data sharing will only occur among organizations of similar jurisdiction (federal agencies with other federal agencies, etc).

Policies that are extensions of Sixth Amendment:

1. Cameras in the courtroom are natural extensions of Sixth Amendment. Do it.

*Sorry I’m posting this late - I’ve spent the better part of the day working on a class project video and forgot to post until just now