On the Web, Vengeance Is Mine (and Mine)

Frontier Justice: New York Times: "Self-appointed sheriffs scan eBay and Yahoo auctions looking for fraud. When they find it - or at least when they think they've found it - they warn buyers or make outrageously high bids themselves in order to end the auction and prevent potential victims from falling into the trap. Elsewhere, private crusaders cruise Internet chat rooms for pedophiles and report their findings to law enforcement - or even expose them online. And hackers release programs into cyberspace that repair the damage done by malicious computer viruses.

In the movies, it always looks so good and pure: the lone gunman rides into town to clean up the lawlessness committed by bad men. From Shane to Bronson, the vigilante theme runs deep in American culture. So it should come as little surprise that the online world - for good or ill - is teeming with vigilantes who take matters into their own hands.

The online world, Professor Zittrain says, is in the process of asking Abraham Lincoln's core question in the Gettysburg Address, which he paraphrases as "are we capable of governing ourselves?"

The jury is still out on that question, but Professor Zittrain said, "It's clear that the status quo is not working.""