The Internet Police

June 3, 2013
Anderson, a senior editor at Ars Technica, shows how sophisticated criminals have moved much of their business from the physical world to the amorphous, anonymous, but far-from-lawless realm of ones and zeros. You wouldn’t think software piracy could lead to international manhunts, high-stakes trials, and sieges of extravagant compounds, but that—and more—is all here: in nine loosely linked chapters, Anderson takes readers into the Wild West of the digital world, examining famous offenses to understand the structural challenges of governing the Internet and the newest policing methods used to sniff out online crime. Anonymity afforded by the Internet has allowed for violations big and small, from vitriolic and bigoted e-mails to massive online drug markets and file-sharing networks that have eroded copyright status and created nesting grounds for child pornography rings and sex trafficking. Anderson’s takes on landmark digital cases (like the RIAA’s wave of infringement lawsuits) are valuable, colorfully drawn primers—but traces of a thematic center unravel early in the book. Anderson meticulously tracks the evolution of Internet policing and asks some glancing questions about the future of civil liberties, but in the end he shies away from a more searching, committed conclusion. Agent: Piers Blofeld, Sheil Land Associates Ltd. (U.K.).