: Judge on privacy: Computer code trumps the law

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: bobr () bobrosenberg phoenix az us [bobr () bobrosenberg phoenix az us]
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 3:55 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: C|Net:  Judge on privacy: Computer code trumps the law

Dave

Perhaps for I.P.

Some serious discussion about privacy in the age of things like Google & Yahoo.

--
Bob Rosenberg
P.O. Box 33023
Phoenix, AZ  85067-3023
Mobile:  602-206-2856
LandLine:  602-274-3012
bob () bobrosenberg phoenix az us

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"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly
repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and
creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
-- President Harry S. Truman, message to Congress, August 8, 1950

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Judge on privacy: Computer code trumps the law

By Liam Tung
http://www.news.com/Judge-on-privacy-Computer-code-trumps-the-law/2100-1029_3-6231713.html

Story last modified Fri Feb 22 10:58:28 PST 2008


Australian High Court Judge Justice Kirby says computer code is more potent than the
law--and that legislators are powerless to do anything about it.

Technology has outpaced the legal system's ability to regulate its use in matters of
privacy and fair use rights, said Kirby, speaking Thursday night at an Internet
Industry Association (IIA) event.

Kirby said the judicial system has faced difficulties in coping with changes the
Internet and computing have brought.

While the soon-to-be-reviewed Privacy Act has incorporated key privacy principles
such as "usage limitation"--which states that data collected about an individual
cannot be used for other purposes, except by the approval of the law or the person's
consent--Google and Yahoo have rendered that principle defunct, Kirby said.

"It was a good moral and ethical principle to keep people's control over the usage
that was made of the information...And then along came Google and Yahoo," said
Kirby.

"And when the new technology came, there was a massive capacity to range through
vast amounts of information. The notion that you could control this was a
conundrum," he said, adding that because the technology is considered so useful,
privacy concerns have been cast aside.

The challenges that technology present continue to beat even the best legal minds in
the world, Kirby said.

Despite this, lawmakers should attempt to implement checks and balances. Without
them, corporations pose an even graver problem for humanity.

"To do nothing is to make a decision to let others go and take technology where they
will. There are even more acute questions arising in biotechnology and informatics,
such as the hybridization of the human species and other species. Points of no
return can be reached," he said.
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However, technology has already allowed corporations to beat the legal system, said
Kirby, citing the case Sony brought against Australian businessman, Eddy Stevens, in
2005 for modifying Sony PlayStations.

Despite the High Court ruling in favor of Stevens, the decision was later overturned
by the government after the U.S. government pressed it to make legislative
amendments to protect Sony's right to restrict where consumers buy its software
from.

"We are moving to a point in the world where more and more law will be expressed in
its effective way, not in terms of statutes solidly enacted by the parliament...but
in the technology itself--code," said Kirby.

Liam Tung of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.


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