Internet Law and Regulation: 3rd Edition

There are many books on Internet law on the market - but few, if any, could compete with Graham Smith's 'Internet Law and Regulation' which, in terms of comprehensiveness of subject-matter covered and detail, is a hard act to follow. Indeed, it justifies taking the risk of praising too much and raising too high expectations, by saying that this book reads and feels like the Bible on Internet law and is very well worth the high price tag of ?145. This, of course, holds true only for someone who wants or needs a bible on Internet law, and there may be room for speculating that, with the Internet and Internet law growing out of its infancy, the possibility of any lawyer being (or aspiring to become) an expert in Internet law as a whole, rather than an expert, let's say, on issues of domain names or digital cash, is becoming increasingly slim.

Interestingly, in the Preface to the First Edition in 1996, Smith started off by addressing the concern that the content of a book dedicated to Internet law may be insubstantial, as well as the question whether the Internet is at all subject to any laws. Five years later, not only do these concerns, with the benefit of hindsight, seem rather funny and so last-century, but in fact they have been replaced by the reverse concern, namely of how to accommodate and do justice to the many recent developments in Internet law. A man 's gotta do what a man's gotta do: Smith makes the book double the length of the previous edition, a proud 700 plus pages. Will he be able to keep up that pace; will there be any need?