Founding Fathers Couldn't Foresee Cybersleaze
from the yes,-but... dept
An opinion piece in the Miami Herald points out the difficulty the US is having legislating around the internet, since the initial ideas in the Constitution were created well before anyone could have even dreamed up something like the internet. The basic point of the article seems to be that maybe things like the first amendment don’t apply in cyberspace. I’d say this is the exact wrong lesson to take from what we’ve learned over the past few years. Instead, I think if we actually followed what the Constitution said we’d be in a lot better shape than trying to carefully shave off (and occasionally chop off entirely) certain rights. It really comes down to whether or not the government trusts its own citizens, or if they think it’s necessary to be overly paternalistic.
