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74 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 1405 (1998-2000)
Open Code and Open Societies: Values of Internet Governance

handle is hein.journals/chknt74 and id is 1423 raw text is: OPEN CODE AND OPEN SOCIETIES: VALUES OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE LAWRENCE LESSIG* Pierre de Fermat was a lawyer and an amateur mathematician. He published one paper in his life-an anonymous article written as an appendix to a colleague's book. But while he published little, he thought lots about the open questions of mathematics of his time. And in 1630, in the margin of his father's copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica, he scribbled next to an obscure theorem (X,+Y,=Zn has no non-zero integer solutions for N>2): I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain.' It's not clear that Fermat had a proof at all. Indeed, in all his mathematical papers, there was but one formal proof. But whether a genius mathematician or not, Fermat was clearly a genius self- promoter, for it is this puzzle that has ipade Fermat famous. For close to four hundred years, the very best mathematicians in the world have tried to pen the proof that Fermat forgot. In the early 1990s, after puzzling on and off about the problem since he was a child, Andrew Wiles believed that he had solved Fermat's Last Theorem. He published his results-on the Internet, as well as other places-but very soon afterwards, a glitch was discovered. The proof was flawed. So he withdrew his claim to having solved Fermat's Theorem. But he could not withdraw the proof. It was out there, in the ether of the Internet, and could not be erased. It was in the hands of many people, some of whom continued to work on the proof, even though flawed. And after extensive and engaged exchange on the Net, the glitch was undone. The problem in Wiles' proof was fixed. Fermat's Last Theorem was solved.2 * Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School. Thanks to Hal Abelson, Scott Bradner, David Johnson, Henry Perritt, and Richard Stallman for comments on an earlier draft. 1. See <http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/-history/HistTopics/Fermat's last-theorem. html>; see also AMIR D. ACZEL, FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM: UNLOCKING THE SECRET OF AN ANCIENT MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM 6 (1996). 2. See SIMON SINGH, FERMAT'S ENIGMA: THE EPIC QUEST TO SOLVE THE WORLD'S GREATEST MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM (1997).

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