The Reality of Bytes: Regulating Economic Activity in the Age of the Internet

By utilizing both a backward and forward looking perspective, this Article develops a model conducive to better understand the Internet's legal implications on economic regulation. The model is also intended to help legislators and regulators adapt their legal and regulatory frameworks to the Internet. This Article canvasses and builds upon the burgeoning development of Internet law. It suggests that the Internet's impact on economic regulation is best understood by classifying its effects into four categories, each of which requires a different regulatory response.

It also considers potential solutions for adapting economic regulation to the Internet. This Article concludes that no single suitable solution or analogy remedies the regulatory challenges posed by the Internet. Rather, as in real space, a combination of approaches is necessary to create an effective regulatory framework.