"James Urquhart came up with a fascinating meme related to this issue, which he calls "follow the law" computing (and make sure to follow some of the links from

"James Urquhart came up with a fascinating meme related to this issue, which he calls "follow the law" computing (and make sure to follow some of the links from James' blog as well). The basic idea is that software would become aware of these issues, and be cleverly partitioned to delegate processing (and, presumably, storage) to the legal jurisdiction that provides the most favourable environment for it." I wouldn't count on it. I'm thinking anyone who tries to formalize the law to any practical degree of accuracy into a computer will hit a concrete wall of incoherence, contradictions, subtleties and complexity. Thinking of that, the formalisation of law in computable terms would be a worthwhile very-long-term goal.