Book review: The Offensive Internet edited by Saul Levmore and Martha C. Nussbaum

Published on Friday 28 January 2011 18:00

The Offensive Internet Edited by Saul Levmore and Martha C. Nussbaum Harvard, £20.95 ****

'Be honest, everyone here would **** the **** out of Jill Feministe.' The internet believes in telling it like it is. But not in letting on who's talking - you can adopt any identity to air your violent fantasies, trash your colleague's reputation or give the world your views on Jews.

There's something incongruous about so many eminent academics engaging with the ethical and legal questions the internet has raised. But their intrepidness in entering the 'cyber-cesspit' shouldn't go unrecognised; neither can we avoid the fact that, if the evils of the internet are to be addressed without jeopardising its benefits, an approach of just this sort is what's needed.