Privacy and Property on the Net.docVIP

Privacy and Property on the Net 网络隐私与知识产权（1）[1] To a sociologist, perhaps the most interesting quality of Internet and other data transmission networks is their potential to alter power relationships with respect to personal privacy and intellectual property. Both are restrictions on the free flow of information. Government is implicated in both, on the one hand by providing legal support for them and, on the other hand, by potentially violating them in the pursuit of its own goals, such as national security. Social scientists have only just begun framing research projects to learn how the Internet is liberating information from traditional restraints or to understand the likely human consequences. [1] 对于社会学家来说，或许因特网和其他数据传输网络最有趣的特性是，它们具有改变涉及个人隐私和知识产权的权势关系的潜质。个人隐私和知识产权两者都限制信息的自由流动。政府与它们均有关联，一方面为它们提供法律支持，另一方面又为了追求自身的目标，例如国家安全，而极可能违背二者。社会科学家们只是刚刚开始构思研究项目，学习因特网如何将信息从传统的局限中解放出来，或者了解它可能为人类带来的后果。 [2] Although both privacy and property are rooted deep in humanitys evolutionary past, they are variables, and societal norms change. For example, until a century and a half ago, U.S. census takers would post their completed enumeration forms in the town square for anyone to read, but from 1850 until 1954 when Title 13 of the U.S. Code forbade publication of an individuals records, a complex series of steps gradually increased confidentiality protections (1). Today, the Census Bureau keeps the data confidential for 72 years. This change has largely been driven by the increasing government collection of data about its citizens, to facilitate social services, taxation, and management of the economy (2). By offering confidentiality, government hopes the public will relinquish some of its traditional privacy. Whether citizens benefit from government collection of data about them is another matter. In Maryland, every prospective juror is asked what his or her religion is, even though this information is not used in the jury selection process. The religion data are kept confidential,