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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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @07:05PM
Except the problem with the government not understanding and keeping up with technology is that "...with a computer" suddenly changes everything and makes illegal and unconstitutional things suddenly legal and acceptable. You're right that government doesn't need to update all the laws with every change in technology, but they absolutely must understand how technology allows new crimes to be committed and new ways to commit old crimes, and realize that "...with a computer" does not change anything - committing fraud over a computer is still fraud, warrantless searches of a person's phone or computer is still a warrantless search, tapping into somebody's Skype sessions without a warrant is still wiretapping, etc. This shit happens and is allowed to continue because government doesn't understand or keep up with technology.