One of the constant quips that people have about the law when it comes to the Internet is that it always seems to be behind the technology. That, before a bill has been passed, it’s already out of date.
Most of the time, that’s very true.
Even legislation that attempts to be forward-thinking, such as the DMCA, is often out of date before the ink has finished drying on the its signature.
People like to believe that this is because legislators and others in government are out of touch with technology and either don’t understand how the Internet works or, even worse, fear it. But while that’s certainly a problem and likely a factor in some of the worse bills, it’s not the larger issue.
The truth is that, even if legislators were the most tech-savvy people on the planet, the law would always be behind the cutting edge of tech and the problem is only going to get worse.
The problem, as it turns out, lies not with the legislators, but with the process that we write, pass, enact and enforce laws. It’s not a problem that voting alone can cure.
If there’s a way to fix it at all, the solution is going to require a major rethinking of the process by which laws come to pass and the way government is organized. [Read more…] about The Problem with the Law and the Internet