Don't Legislate- Educate

I have said in various rants and articles in the past that the problem with creating laws is that only the lawful care. Those who are breaking the law will most likely continue to do so whether a new law with harsher punishments is created or not. By definition, the lawless don't follow the laws- that's why they're lawless.

In general, more should be done to find new ways to find and catch the existing criminals rather than coming up with new laws that aren't enforceable because the bad guys can't be caught to begin with. But, it gives elected officials a false sense of accomplishment to write new laws with draconian penalties. Munir Kotadia highlights this issue further- pointing out that educating users will do more to secure cyberspace than writing new legislation.

Click here to read the article on silicon.com: Cybercrime: education not legislation the answer.

Creating new laws that deals with current criminals is just a reactive way of doing things. It is only good for a short time because eventually, people will find loopholes to the law and exploit them up. Educating the user is a proactive way of dealing with the problem.

I agree, I agree, I agree.... instead of spending the money on legislation, it would be nice to see it put towards "free" classes educate users. I think some form of basic computer classes should be free anyway, just because our society is so reliant (and dependant)

The point on which I disagree, however, is the stiffer penalties, ala "death penalty for parking tickets"...Steve Martin, nineteen seventy something :D

The stiffer penalties do no good if you can't catch the bad guys...

I think better legislation is needed. Not more, not newer, just better written. (I do support the death penalty for people who don't know how to park... lol) This is a big thing when it comes to computers. The legislation is written by people who just don't have a clue.

I have personal experience with cybercrime laws. A close friend of mine was busted a few years ago. When the Secret Cervix (Beavis and Butt-head joke) dropped his case and it went to the state of Florida for prosecution, the laws didn't cover what he did. He ended up with 20 different felonies that made no sense. He was found guilty on all counts and got 30 years. Thankfully the judge allowed him to have concurrent sentences on all but two so he only had to serve 3...

I agree. Governments create legislation because they are scared. They don't know what else to do. I think that they don't belive it will work make a difference either. It is just so they can say they are doing something about it.

I agree, this is the information age... Knowledge is power, and information can be traded like any other resource on the market. The people that write our computer laws should be educated in computer science, because how can you write laws for a medium of information that you don't understand anything about? Either that, or get the lawyers and the computer techs all in one room and write the laws in a team. That might work :) Heck, while they're at it, they can start by making spam illegal :D lol Its time for the law makers of our country to wake up... Get educated, or be obslete!

I'm pretty much in agreement with everybody here. We don't need more laws governing computers or the Internet or, really, anything else. The problem is that politicians, and it doesn't matter what country they're from, are there to make laws to "protect" us from ourselves. It's what they do for a living. The fact that many of those laws don't work doesn't matter. It makes them feel good to pass laws, because there isn't anything else they can do.