I believe there is no real way to create laws that keep up
with the technology. This is because we have to take our time in creating the
law for various reasons, and then after in is set in place new technology is
out. The only thing they could do is actually restrict technology from coming out until
a law is in place, but that would stop
our progress as a nation.
By Shaun Chapson
Technology and the ways we use it will change the role of
law and lawyers.
Courts and legislatures are struggling to keep up with the
fast pace of technology. New laws and cases are quickly outdated. For example
in 2007, the Ninth Circuit issued Perfect 10 v. Google, a copyright case with a
cutting-edge description of how the Internet works. That description is now
wrong and so is most of the basis for the holding.
Recently, a jury awarded Apple $1billion in a patent
infringement case. The complaint was filed in April 2011. Since then, Apple has
released new versions of the Macbook Pro, iMac, Macbook Air, iPad, iPhone, and
at least two operating systems.
State legislatures have rushed bills into law to protect
employees and job applicants from having to give employers their social media
passwords. But even that took months. Neither Congress nor legislatures are
capable of keeping up with how fast technology is moving. Most pending bills
are older than the original iPad.
“By Heather Bussing”
Radical changes in information-gathering methods and
information-sharing technologies have created loopholes that can render key
federal data privacy protection laws ineffective, according to a Government
Accountability Office security expert.
That assessment was contained in the written testimony of
Gregory Wilshusen, the GAO's information security issues director, before a subcommittee
of the Senate Committee of Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
The 22-page GAO statement "Federal Law Should Be
Updated to Address Changing Technology Landscape" (PDF) focused on the
government's data-handling systems across all agencies and specifically
mentioned the 2006 breach of 26.5 million veterans' records by the Veterans
Affairs Department as an example of security problems involving personally
identifiable data.
The number of reported security incidents involving federal
agencies has risen dramatically in recent years, to 42,887 in 2011 from 5,503
in fiscal 2005, according to the GAO. Among the 2011 incidents, 15,560 involved
the unauthorized disclosure of personally identifiable information, Wilshusen
said.
“By Joseph Conn”
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