[governance] regulating the digital space - whose laws apply, and whose do not

[Roland Perry]

In message <4E5E4663.6080605 at digsys.bg>, at 17:34:11 on Wed, 31 Aug 
2011, Daniel Kalchev <daniel at digsys.bg> writes
>> In the opinion of many Americans "guns don't kill people, people kill 
>>people", but governments (even the USA government) seek to regulate 
>>guns.
>
>You mean, like they are regulating cars? On the principle that "no car 
>should be produced to run faster than the police cars"?

Cars are regulated (for example with regard to the quality of their 
brakes, lighting, air pollution, noise, crash-worthiness...), but I've 
not come across a regulation on top speed. Most police cars where I live 
are quite low-cost family saloons, they are used to transport policemen 
to where they need to be, rather than chasing bank robbers.

>In the end  however, you are prosecuted not because your car ran faster 
>than the Police's, but because you were trying to run away from the 
>Police.

You'd probably be prosecuted for careless driving, or exceeding the 
speed limit, or running a red traffic light.

>This way of thinking explains the attempts to cripple the Internet, in 
>order to gain easier control.

The Internet is crippled more by efforts to combat spammers, than 
anything else. For example by blocking port 25. It all depends what you 
mean by "control". But having switched to port 587 to appease the ISP 
I'm using at the moment, I'm free to send any words I like to this 
mailing list.
-- 
Roland Perry
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