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Personally, my fears are not about any current laws, but laws that might be created. I'd much rather for our society to respect privacy in these matters, especi

Personally, my fears are not about any current laws, but laws that might be created. I'd much rather for our society to respect privacy in these matters, especially if we have the potential to create laws I'd disagree with. Also, if people have nothing to hide, let me access their computers for an evening, and also let me send any "proof" of breaking "stupid laws", like watching a dvd on their computer, or accessing a file with unwarranted DMCA takedown notice out for it. There's a lot of potential for innocent people going to jail in a video taped society.

nathansoohoo 14y ago
Exactly. Building on jgrahamc's comment - it's the future laws enacted that have cause for concern. At which point will the legal suddenly become illegal and precedence is set?
Symmetry 14y ago
Would they go to jail? Police ignore trivial laws like those against jaywalking all the time. I remember as a kid riding back from a Boy Scout event and with a cop driving and him describing which laws every vehicle we passed were breaking. Not that he'd ever pull them over for those normally - unless he had a hunch that they were carrying drugs or something. If crimes as minor as decrypting a DVD were actually prosecuted then it wouldn't be a lot of people going to jail. It would be everybody. Including all the cops and judges. Which is never going to happen. The real danger here is selective enforcement of laws, and the selective enforcement of laws. Well, we have the later already (see "Professional Courtesy") but the former gets much more dangerous to the extent that police officers can control which videos do or do not end up at a courtroom. If a lawyer can show that the police are regularly ignoring an offense in other contexts that can be a defense in the US, but in practice the US justice system does a very bad job of getting exculpatory police collected video evidence into the hands of defense lawyers.
- lnanek2 14y ago
  Just getting sent to court can be a punishment too, though. It makes you waste money hiring a lawyer, or waste time going to court yourself. I got sent for being in a park after dusk the other day, something police never seem to enforce around here, but suddenly started doing in one certain area because there was a shooting a while back. So selective enforcement basically let them nail everyone who spent any time in the park after dusk when they decided it suited them. Maybe not with jail, but at least with court time or lawyer fees.
TomaszZielinski 14y ago
"Personally, my fears are not about any current laws" So you're the only person who knows all 3000-10000 (depending on the source) federal crimes out there (assuming you're in the USA).

nathansoohoo 14y ago

Exactly. Building on jgrahamc's comment - it's the future laws enacted that have cause for concern. At which point will the legal suddenly become illegal and precedence is set?

Symmetry 14y ago

Would they go to jail? Police ignore trivial laws like those against jaywalking all the time. I remember as a kid riding back from a Boy Scout event and with a cop driving and him describing which laws every vehicle we passed were breaking. Not that he'd ever pull them over for those normally - unless he had a hunch that they were carrying drugs or something. If crimes as minor as decrypting a DVD were actually prosecuted then it wouldn't be a lot of people going to jail. It would be everybody. Including all the cops and judges. Which is never going to happen. The real danger here is selective enforcement of laws, and the selective enforcement of laws. Well, we have the later already (see "Professional Courtesy") but the former gets much more dangerous to the extent that police officers can control which videos do or do not end up at a courtroom. If a lawyer can show that the police are regularly ignoring an offense in other contexts that can be a defense in the US, but in practice the US justice system does a very bad job of getting exculpatory police collected video evidence into the hands of defense lawyers.

lnanek2 14y ago
Just getting sent to court can be a punishment too, though. It makes you waste money hiring a lawyer, or waste time going to court yourself. I got sent for being in a park after dusk the other day, something police never seem to enforce around here, but suddenly started doing in one certain area because there was a shooting a while back. So selective enforcement basically let them nail everyone who spent any time in the park after dusk when they decided it suited them. Maybe not with jail, but at least with court time or lawyer fees.

TomaszZielinski 14y ago

"Personally, my fears are not about any current laws" So you're the only person who knows all 3000-10000 (depending on the source) federal crimes out there (assuming you're in the USA).