Privacy and social norms
Ed Felten pointed to a fascinating LawMeme article on the subject of the privacy interests of e-mail users -- not against search and seizure, but against ordinary Internet users who forward things indiscriminately. It's a good read and thought-provoking.
There seems to be a whole genre of thought-provoking articles of the form "our experience of the Internet contains a vacuum with regard to legal and social norms around ________, as was dramatically revealed by this singular event". (Variants include "how should our everyday off-line intuition and institutions map to the Internet world? -- a question highlighted by this singular event" or "the Internet is really maturing and becoming an important and complicated part of everyday life, because now Internet users even have to deal with problems such as _______, as was dramatically demonstrated by this singular event".) Maybe the most influential piece in this genre is "A Rape in Cyberspace". These essays used to be more common than they are today. They rarely propose any kind of conceptual solution to the problem or conundrum they explore. They are not useless. Even long-time, sophisticated Internet users haven't thought about all the gaps between kinds of experience.
The good thing is that the "et in Arcadia" ("et in Cyberia"?) pieces have gotten a bit less breathless and gee-whiz. They take for granted that there is this network, and it's useful, and people actually use it and rely on it. Maybe that evolution is helpful. There are conflicting influences about this. Remind me to write about the old days of Wired.
