Sat, 28 Aug 2004 21:26:01 GMT

The Technological Juggernaut: “[L]aw and technology are substitute methods of protecting an interest. You can sue a trespasser; but it may be cheaper just to put up a strong fence. We used to think that if the technological substitute was adequate, it would be superior to the legal [...] The dizzying advances of modern technology have destroyed these assumptions.” [Lessig Blog] [Universal Rule]

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law, and the modern legal system with everything that implies is a technology, a socio-economic mechanism, as much as the factory is, or as much as schools are. they all are technical and technological institutions, and we have to be careful when we talk about them otherwise or contrast them with things which are categorically similar.