____/tab\ . /tab\ Speakers' /tab\ Madison /tab\ Telephone /tab\ Cable TV
____/tab\ . /tab\ Corner /tab\ Square /tab\ System /tab\ .
____/tab\ . /tab\ . /tab\ Garden /tab\ . /tab\ .
____/tab\ . /tab\ . /tab\ . /tab\ . /tab\ .
____/tab\ Content /tab\ Free /tab\ Free /tab\ Free /tab\ Controlled
____/tab\ Code /tab\ Free /tab\ Free /tab\ Controlled /tab\ Controlled
____/tab\ Physical /tab\ Free /tab\ Controlled /tab\ Controlled /tab\ Controlled

Now, from the language I've used so far, you might think that the Inter-
net is a communications system free all the way down -- free, that is, at every
one of Benkler's layers. It is not. What is special about the Internet is the way
it mixes freedom with control at different layers. The physical layer of the
Internet is fundamentally controlled. The wires and the computers across
which the network runs are the property of either government or individu-
als. Similarly, at the content layer, much in the existing Internet is con-
trolled. Not everything served across the Net is free for the taking. Much is
properly and importantly protected by property law.

At the code layer, however, in ways that will become clearer below, the
Internet was free. So too was much of the content served across the network
free. The Internet thus mixed both free and controlled layers, not just layers
that were free.

Our aim is to understand how this mix produced the innovation that we
have seen so far and why the changes to this mix will kill what we have seen
so far.

[[25]]

p024 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p025w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p026

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