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Although communication firms have a strong interest in minimizing regulations and thereby constructing a space of flows that these technol- ogies may inhabit without hindrance from taxation, they have a contra- dictory interest in constructing parts of that space firmly within state territory. Thus, for instance, efforts during the 1980s to limit proposed requirements for national permission to send direct broadcast satellite signals across state borders were countervailed in the 1990s by measures designed to protect copyright in international broadcast programming (Comor, 1998). A similar phenomenon has occurred in cyberspace, where leading states, even while advocating cyberspace as a 'global free trade zone', have sponsored international agreements to protect copyrights for electronic-media intellectual property. This stance demonstrates that the conventional depiction of cyberspace as an uncontrollable space of flows betrays the complex processes and interests underlying the space's social construction |
