It is such an easy thing to say: All they have to do is pass some laws
...
And it is so far from the mark it is not funny.
First, making something illegal has *never* stopped that something from
happening. Laws are not preventatives -- they are guidelines which
provide for punishment should you fail to follow the rules.
Second, to punish anyone you have to first catch them. And to catch
someone who has broken the law, you must be an official agency given
authorization to act by that law.
Now stop and think:
** Any government which would install Windows on it's naval warships
doesn't know snit about computers.
** The people who work in MIS and fight full-time to control those
guilty of UCE/UBE [spam is *only* in newsgroups] have a hard time
catching the perpetrators.
** Any agency of the gov't is, therefore, damned unlike to be able to
catch anyone doing anything!
** AND -- Federal Case Law precedents have been set which hold that
any "evidence" stored only electronically [i.e. so very easy to
change without leaving a finger/footprint] is inadmissable because it
"proves" nothing.
So, if the laws are passed there is no one competent to even catch the
criminal, and no punishment can be meted out because all the "evidence"
is inadmissible in a court of law.
For some reason I don't think that passing laws will do anything about
UCE/UBE in e-mail or spam in newsgroups. The only thing such laws are
likely to do is pile "requirements" onto ISPs and/or individual computer
users, requirements that cannot be met and still have the internet
running with any functionality or speed ... and which won't stop the bad
guys anyway.
It is a proven fact that good citizens don't break the laws, even if
they don't know the law exists most of the time. And it's a proven fact
that bad guys don't give a snit about the law, and set out intentionally
to break it.
Finally -- If a law were written precisely enough to actually have some
chance of controlling abusers of the system, and if the regulations were
written precisely enough to actually make it possible to abide by the
law, those very regulations would provide a roadmap on how to circumvent
them.
Can you say "More abusers would result!"?
l.d.
P.S. Not a single law on any book has prevented a burglary, stopped a
riot from happening, inactivated a gun when the trigger is pulled.
Laws, even when they attempt to, cannot legislate morality. All law has
ever been able to do, or will ever be able to do, is provide for
punishment of parties found guilty under the law. And as long as there
is a way to break the law with little chance of being caught, there will
be people ready, willing, and eager to do so. If you don't believe me,
look at all the people passing you when you next drive your car ... then
look at your own speedometer and tell me it never indicates a speed over
the legal limit.
-- This mail was written by user of Arachne, the Ultimate Internet Client
-- Arachne V1.66, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
