Law in the Internet Society

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CharlesColmanPaper2 4 - 18 Dec 2008 - Main.CharlesColman
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-- CharlesColman - 12 Dec 2008
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 On a completely separate note, I think a major argument for privacy follows from the illogic of your other examples (anti-gay marriage, squashing unions, etc.). Even if the cost of doing these things is low, there isn't really much benefit. Stopping gay marriage isn't going to keep gay people from doing what they want, squashing unions only works if everyone does it (and the market will insure someone doesn't), and snooping around the internet will turn up millions of people looking for Hitler images or check out socialist texts before it will catch an even semi-competent terrorist. It is one thing to sacrifice some right in order to be safer, but another to sacrifice for the mere illusion of protection.

-- HamiltonFalk - 17 Dec 2008

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Thanks for the comments. I think a loss of privacy will result in a chilling effect on one's willingess to exercise constitutional rights, regardless of the actual contours of those rights. The fact that our rights have been constricted during the Bush years makes the problem more acute, but I suspect the phenomenon holds during better times. Also, just to clarify, the list including gay marriage and union-busting only served to illustrate the many ways in which people's political views reflect a lack of empathy for the "other." No other comparison with the privacy issue was intended.

-- CharlesColman - 18 Dec 2008

 
 
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Revision 4r4 - 18 Dec 2008 - 06:40:16 - CharlesColman
Revision 3r3 - 17 Dec 2008 - 16:14:03 - HamiltonFalk
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