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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the a-victory-for-the-people dept.

Today, thanks to political gridlock in the U.S., lawmakers respond to innovations with all the speed of continental drift. As government gets slower, tech is going the opposite way. New technologies spread instantly by cloud-based apps and social networks, and take hold with almost no legal oversight. Then, by the time government can act, it's usually too late to wind things back to the way they were.

And this, as it turns out, is terrific for tech startups, especially those aimed at demolishing creaky old norms—like taxis, or flight paths over crowded airspace, or money. Lately, the law vs. tech gap is making headlines as it upends the rules around sports gambling. The daily fantasy sports sites FanDuel and DraftKings are showing how fast technology can exploit the gap and put government on its heels.

This problem is as old as law itself. From thrown rocks to spears, bow and arrow to guns, agricultural to industrial economies, government has always had this problem.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:54AM (#257802)

    For many of these newfangled industries - BTW many of which have little to do with technical brilliance on the part of the startup - there is a classic debate that has (at least) two sides. Maybe more.

    Back in the 18th and 19th century, you could argue that the law was slow to catch up with the industrialization that included the steam engine and clothing mills. Lots of workers came off to the farm to the cities, and in many cases their lives were dismal. The few owners and managers of those factories made fortunes, those were the robber barons. And it led to worldwide population explosion, deforestation and depletion of earth's natural resources which continues to this day. It wasn't an unmitigated good thing.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @04:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @04:00AM (#257806)
    Here's a profile from that time: Henry Clay Frick [wikipedia.org], founder of a coke (coal-derived fuel) manufacturing company, chairman of Carnegie Steel, and labeled "The Most Hated Man in America" (and probably the origin of the tamed-down expletive "Frickin'").
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @04:13AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @04:13AM (#257809)

      Yeah, the parallel to many of today's software billionaires like Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs is pretty easy. Bill Gates actually studied biographies of the 19th century robber barons, as well as Napolean, when he was a kid attending Lakeside prep school.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday November 03 2015, @07:23AM

    by Magic Oddball (3847) on Tuesday November 03 2015, @07:23AM (#257853) Journal

    Their lives weren't just dismal — until regulations were finally put in place, the situation was better described as horrific. Anyone that cheers on the idea of industries bypassing government regulation should read Upton Sinclair's classic exposé novel The Jungle [wikipedia.org].

    Here's a bit about it from the Wikipedia article:

    After reading The Jungle, Roosevelt agreed with some of Sinclair's conclusions. The president wrote "radical action must be taken to do away with the efforts of arrogant and selfish greed on the part of the capitalist." He assigned Labor Commissioner Charles P. Neill and social worker James Bronson Reynolds to go to Chicago to investigate some meat packing facilities.

    Learning about the visit, owners had their workers thoroughly clean the factories prior to the inspection, but Neill and Reynolds were still revolted by the conditions. Their oral report to Roosevelt supported much of what Sinclair portrayed in the novel, excepting the claim of workers falling into rendering vats. Neill testified before Congress that the men had reported only "such things as showed the necessity for legislation." ...

    Roosevelt did not release the Neill-Reynolds Report for publication. His administration submitted it directly to Congress on June 4, 1906. Public pressure led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906; the latter established the Bureau of Chemistry (in 1930 renamed as the Food and Drug Administration).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:53PM (#258053)

      Their lives weren't just dismal — until regulations were finally put in place, the situation was better described as horrific.

      That's why we need to continue on the great, divine quest to deregulate everything and get Big Government out of everyone's lives, especially the noble Job Creators'. Poors aren't supposed to have good lives or be treated well or any of that socialist nonsense, they're supposed to be happy little slaves for their masters. Thank Capitalism that poors aren't able to attain any wealth, else they might start getting inflated egos and think they could ever be equals to the nobility.