From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Mar 24 2003 - 10:54:04 MST
Mike Lorrey wrote:
>--- Charles Hixson <charleshixsn@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
>>Mike Lorrey wrote:
>>
>>
>> ...
>
>A responsible citizen should be aware of the laws in their
>jurisdiction. While there are many small statutory violations which it
>is difficult to avoid these days, such are not generally felonies.
>Whistling and chewing gum at the same time may get you a citation in
>some communities (not kidding), but such generally are not felonies.
>...
>
Have you *EVER* seen a complete list of the laws? I haven't. I do know
that the DMCA by itself was over 2000 pages long. (Or perhaps that was
the UCTIA 2b [renamed].). I've seen a library of the texts of important
contract laws of the state of California. Library is the word. And
everytime a voters pamplet comes out, I try to figure out what the
things they want to pass really mean. I estimate my reading time for
law as about an hour per page. (That's more than I actually invest, but
I don't always end up understanding what I've read.)
And you say I should be aware of all of these laws! Not only would I
not have time to do anything else, I wouldn't have time to eat or sleep,
either. You might assert that "well, you only need to read the
important laws", but those aren't the only felonies. Conspiracy to
comit a misdeameanor, e.g., is a felony. So if you are planning to do
something that violates any minor law (well, not ordinances... I think
that's a separate category), then you are comitting a felony, and so
this restriction referred to comes into play.
Now normally I would agree that these laws are not enforced. But they
are on the books, and they have been enforced when the powers that be
wanted to *get* someone. A valid defense is random enforcement, but
that's a tough argument, and an expensive argument, and if they are
holding you without a lawyer (as per recent laws), then you can't even
make it. Even when the defense is allowed, and is successful, the
objective of "getting that person away from here" is normally achieved,
and the costs of defending themselves is generally an adequate deterrent
against repetition. Unless you are VERY wealthy, in which case they
wouldn't bother you anyway. These laws are directed at letting the
government cut off whatever behavior, however legal, it chooses to.
Like "peacably assembling to petition the government for redress of
wrongs" (I probably garbled the quote, but not the essential meaning).
-- -- Charles Hixson Gnu software that is free, The best is yet to be.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Mar 24 2003 - 11:05:30 MST