The widely read technology correspondent discusses the controversy arising from the revelation that Sony has been “injecting an undetectable copy-prevention utility into Microsoft Windows”. On the one hand, lawyers have already filed a class-action suit against Sony complaining of the practice; on the other hand, consumers who try to rid their computers of the anticopying program are at risk of violating “Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans the ‘circumvention’ of anticopying technology.” McCullagh goes on to observe:
If your head isn’t spinning by now, it should be. It’s a wacky result when both Sony and its hapless customers could be embroiled in legal hot water at the same time.
These citations to state laws, federal statutes and common law torts above should demonstrate an obvious point: The American legal system is, all too often, used as a weapon against businesses or individuals who can’t hope to comply with every regulation on the books. Entrepreneurs write checks to law firms instead of developing products. Guilt and innocence turn too often on technicalities rather than whether an action was inherently right or wrong.
Why? As Manhattan Institute fellow Walter Olson documents on Overlawyered.com, our legal system is set up to encourage lawsuits. They’re easy to file and difficult to dismiss. Plus, politicians receive attention by enacting new laws, not by repealing them. No wonder the Federal Register was growing by between 55,000 and 70,000 pages annually even by the first Bush presidency. …
(“Perspective: Why they say spyware is good for you”, CNet News, Nov. 7).
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