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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Apr 23rd 2007 8:19pm





Wait, There Are Good Internet Laws?

from the just-kidding... dept

Law professor Eric Goldman has written up an article where he wanted to list out the best and worst internet-related laws out there. Coming up with "good" ones turned out to be a challenge, with just the law banning new internet access taxes and section 230 of the CDA making the list. Of course, you could argue that the safe harbor afforded by section 230 (protecting sites from the actions of their users) is based on so much common sense that there shouldn't need to be a law to back it up. Of course, when it comes to the "bad" list, there were way too many to choose from. The DMCA makes a couple of appearances (for different parts) and there are some other blasts from the past as well. It's pretty frustrating to read through the list, in part because so many of the "bad" laws aren't just bad, but were obviously bad from when they were proposed. Lots of people have pointed out why those laws would do more harm than good, but so far, politicians don't seem interested in correcting the mistakes they made with them. They passed the laws so they could claim they stopped some "bad" thing from happening online, even if the law did no such thing. It would be nice if politicians were actually held accountable for the unintended consequences of their bad laws -- especially when those laws do little to actually achieve what they were proposed to do.

7 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    identicon
    Ben(damnit), Apr 23rd, 2007 @ 9:34pm

    Accountability?

    Accountability, for politicians? Never!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Travis, Apr 23rd, 2007 @ 10:56pm

    I will never understand politics

    I have always been curious how congress can pass laws regarding the internet anyway. Last I checked, it is an international communications network. Not something exclusive to our country.

    I mean I know our country is all about telling everyone we are the land of the free and that they should live exactly like us, but when did we start legislating for them too?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Apr 24th, 2007 @ 2:40am

    Repeat after me:

    Step 1
    It's not about the laws and their consequences. It's about "they can claim they stopped some "bad" thing from happening online".

    Step2
    go to step 1

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Brian, Apr 24th, 2007 @ 5:51am

    Anti-hack laws

    so is it good for you to have anti-hack laws you think, if you are not a hacker?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    Overcast, Apr 24th, 2007 @ 6:03am

    Best 'law' on the internet would be the lack of a 'law'.

    What the fu#k is it with politicians thinking they have to control everything?

    Shouldn't we consider such gross impositions of power and greed a mental illness?

    Why is it that people who overeat, undereat, see things, hear voices, have mood swings are all considered 'mentally ill' yet people who will happily run over top of someone for money or power are 'ok'?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Pedren, Apr 24th, 2007 @ 8:05am

    Re: #5

    That phemoninon is known as the "American Dream"your God given right to rape, trample and destroy anyone else in your effort to make millions of dollars

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    Frostlyne, Apr 24th, 2007 @ 9:23pm

    Have pity for the puppet

    Surely you must realize that so many news anchors who have spent years with government and corporations liberally shoving hands, heads, and feet up the backsides of these reporters in an attempt to show themselves in a better light to the public has caused envy among those with huge orifices, and those who post honestly on the internet with small untouched orificies! Imagine how hard it must be, how uncomfortable it is to sit in a chair with a corporate hack sitting squarely inside you whispering what you can or can't play, can or can't say, can or can't view. He looks at his email, and sees many others posting and publishing the very thing he isn't allowed to see, while dancing around, lacking the weight of the corporate plugged squarely into their backside. Frankly, I pity them.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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