Hey Neelie Kroes, The 90s Called, It Wants Its Case Against Microsoft Back

Wait, There Are Good Internet Laws?

from the just-kidding... dept

Mon, Apr 23rd 2007 8:19pm — Mike Masnick

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.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

7 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Ben(damnit), 23 Apr 2007 @ 9:34pm

Accountability?
Accountability, for politicians? Never!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Travis, 23 Apr 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?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 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
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Brian, 24 Apr 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?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Overcast, 24 Apr 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'?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pedren, 24 Apr 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
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Frostlyne, 24 Apr 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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]