Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Michael D. Thomas" <mdthomas AT mindspring.com>]

> will this lead to a flood of ineffective and unenforceable legislation?

floods of legislation..... hmmm....

------

...and the villagers clamored, "We must stop these floods of technology
legislation!"

The technology meteorologists observed, "the floods come in the
_springtime of a technology evolution."

The engineers queried, "perhaps a dam could be built?"

The villagers proclaimed, "We must, we must!"

And the villagers marched upstream.

With all of their wit and all their know-how, they studied the problem. They
invented tools. They sweated. And a short while later, the dam was complete. A
Great Lake of legislation formed across the valley behind the dam. The
villagers swam in legalese and wind-surfed across penalties.

And the _springtime floods were prevented.

People from miles around came to feast their eyes on the success. They
exclaimed, "We must have one, too!" And then the crowd descended on the
engineers: "What tools did you use? Where are the plans? How are you going to
maintain it? We must have your technology!"

And at that moment, a low rumbling was heard.

The tools, the plans, the dam and even the engineers themselves started to
shake. All heads turned to look up across the valley. The reverberations were
descending from on high -- from The Source.

The sky grew darker with clouds like the worst April thunderstorm.

A new _springtime of a new technology was starting -- the technology of the
legislation dam itself.

And the floodwaters were on their way...

------

The intersection of Internet technology and law will be fascinating to observe
during this regulatory phase of the Internet's evolution.

(This phase of regulation for the Internet industry is in contrast to the
deregulatory phase for the phone, trucking, railroad and airline industries
during the 70's and 80's.)

Oh, on identity theft and the pending legislation: CAN-SPAM specifically
prohibits fake email addresses in UCE. It also mandates that a spammer's
return email address must be usable for unsubscribes and "has capacity
reasonably calculated, in light of the number of recipients of the commercial
electronic mail message, to enable it to receive the full expected
quantity of reply messages from such recipients."

Per the enforcement and the effectiveness: Enforcement is up to the ISPs,
state AGs, and FTC. Not so effective beyond the borders.

That's the other topic that goes along with the regulatory phase of the
Internet: the further balkanization of the Internet through both technical and
regulatory means.

http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/s630.html

There are other bills out there, but I'm guessing nothing stronger than
CAN-SPAM will pass this session.

http://www.cauce.org/legislation/index.shtml