NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> legislation regarding the Internet
ONLINE-ADS>> legislation regarding the Internet
Leo Sheiner (leo_at_netcomuk.co.uk)
Wed, 05 Feb 1997 21:36:31 +0000
Glenn Barry <gbarry_at_sydney.net> writes:
<snip>
> PERSONS OUTSIDE OF MINNESOTA WHO TRANSMIT INFORMATION
> VIA THE INTERNET KNOWING THAT INFORMATION WILL BE
> DISSEMINATED IN MINNESOTA ARE SUBJECT TO JURISDICTION IN
> MINNESOTA COURTS FOR VIOLATIONS OF STATE CRIMINAL AND
> CIVIL LAWS.
<snip>
I am not a lawyer but I know that Laws that are not enforcable are bad
laws. There are any number of countries who are on the Internet whose
governments do not recognise US laws let alone state laws let alone the
right of any country to extend their jurisdiction beyond their borders.
Such ill conceived legislation does not even address the problems of
seeking to police such legislation, making a case or the practical problems
of seeking to enforce it.
Any state that seeks to legislate about the Internet simply does not
understand the Internet or the effects of globalisation and is whistling in
the wind. Their efforts - if they even meet a minimal degree of success -
will then result in an increasing number of sites moving off-shore
resulting in a loss of revenue for the state. This is another case similar
to the US government attempts to legislate against the export of secure
encryption. A belated realisation that all this achieves is to foster
competition off-shore and that intellectual assets cannot be indefinitely
ring-fenced in this manner will inevitably lead to a change in that law.
Bureaucrats and politicians probably do not yet really understand the long
term social and commercial effects of what is going on. If they do,
understand it they certainly will not like it because in time it will cut
to the very heart of what government is there to do. We have increasingly
sub-contracted skills largely within an information and intellectual
capital environment. Enhanced communications - mainly the Internet - means
that such skills can be just as easily deployed at a distance. I.E. such a
business does not have to exist in an office in the heart of a large
metropolis or even in any particular country.
In an information environment a business will become as portable as the
owners of that business wish it to be. That means that an increasing number
of people may choose to locate where the ammenities, climate, lack of crime
and regulatory/taxation environment are best. Over a period that will
provide a very strong influence to reduce regulation and taxation rates. It
will certainly change the nature of taxation itself because countries (and
states) will all compete for that portable intellectual capital.
If California, Minnesota or any other state produce stupid and unenforcable
legislation they will eventually see a flight of valuable knowledge and
revenue from their state. I am confident that this will have its long term
impact whatever they may try to do in the short term.
Leo
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