Doctorow: The coming war on general-purpose computation [LWN.net]

Doctorow: The coming war on general-purpose computation

Posted Jan 1, 2012 21:56 UTC (Sun) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313)
In reply to: Doctorow: The coming war on general-purpose computation by job
Parent article: Doctorow: The coming war on general-purpose computation

the problem I have with the 'war on distracted driving' is where does it end?

do you ban radios because yelling back at the talk radio host is a distraction (or because grooving along with your favorite music is a distraction)

what about banning kids from riding in the car (ever seen how distracting a couple of kids fighting in the back seat can be for the driver?

how about banning passengers altogether because interacting with passengers can be a distraction (In California they've already taken the first steps in this direction by banning drivers under the age of 18 from driving passengers)

it's impossible to ban all forms of distraction, and even if you could, the resulting boredom would then cause accidents.

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Doctorow: The coming war on general-purpose computation

Posted Jan 5, 2012 12:24 UTC (Thu) by job (guest, #670) [Link]

In law, drawing that line is often left to the court system on purpose. Too specific lawmaking seems to be regarded as almost an abuse of power from the politicians. The language of the law comprises only part of what the judicial system has to take into account when deciding those matters. I too regard it as convoluted but there's probably a reason why it works like that.