Eli Dourado on fighting malware without laws

Eli Dourado, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, discusses malware and possible ways to deal with it. Dourado notes several shortcomings of a government response including the fact that the people who create malware come from many different countries some of which would not be compliant with the US or other countries seeking to punish a malware author. Introducing indirect liability for ISPs whose users spread malware, as some suggest, is not necessary, according to Dourado. Service providers have already developed informal institutions on the Internet to deal with the problem. These real informal systems are more efficient than a hypothetical liability regime, Dourado argues.

Download

Related Links


“Internet Security Without Law: How Service Providers Create Online Order”, Eli Dourado
“Holding Internet Service Providers Accountable”, Posner and Lichtman Paper
“Spam Volumes Drop by Two-Thirds After Firm Goes Offline, Washington Post
Coase Theorum