Infant Internet
When the concept of what we now call “The Internet” was transformed from an abstract concept into a perceptible entity used by people, no one really could foresee the complexity and scope of communication that would end up happening on the medium. Legislation made in the late 1900s focused more on already established technologies and forms of communication. Without more tailored legal literature, it would prove difficult to take the available laws and acts and apply them to issues related to the internet. However, the USA has been quite slow and behind in these legal issues.
One example of such a law is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which focuses on updating an older wiretapping law. The act only centered on interception of “hard” telephone lines and did not address the internet and any other digital transmission methods. This deficit in legislation was not rectified until the USA PATRIOT Act , rushed into law 15 years later as a somewhat impetuous and reactionary measure in response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. While an update was needed for internet legislation in general, its debatable whether or not a similar act would have been passed as soon without the catalyst of a tragedy.
Is it fair to legislate the internet? Do we have that power?