"[W]hat people do on the networks will help shape what becomes legal."

Porter's (understated) political agenda in this book suggests that an attention to ethics can have a tremendous amount of influence for the future, and conversely an inattention to ethics and a reliance on law can have chilling effects all around: "we are in an ethically sensitive and important time right now because what we as users (and as teachers of users) do on the networks will help constitute the norms for such discourse as they become stabilized and legally sanctioned (or not) in the future" (8). He clarifies the distinction between what is legal and what is ethical, asserting the interdependence of the two. The legal is what is allowable, whereas the ethical is what is desirable--what should be done.

Main Page | Porter's Previous Work | Guiding Questions | Rhetorical Ethics | Internetworked Writing | Internetworked Classroom | Shaping a Future Ethics Table of Contents | Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7