For the insurance industry, most of the hot computer-law issues fall into one of these categories. Precedents create a difficult issue. Lawyers and legislators seem fixated on the novelty of computers. Computers have created significant changes, but telephones, telecopiers and other devices created changes that were equally significant. The law adjusted for these advances, and it will adjust for computers as well.
Analogy is the key.
Courts will analogize the functions of computers with functions in areas where the law is already resolved. The New York Court of Appeals demonstrated this process in a December 1999 decision, Lunney vs. Prodigy Services Co. The court found that Prodigy was not liable for certain defamatory comments on bulletin boards by analogizing to a telephone company s obligations for defamatory discussions on the telephone. While the Lunney decision was issued only a few months ago, we already have seen another court, the New York Court of Claims, take the analogy approach in Firth v. State to resolve the application of statute of limitations in an Internet-related context. The lack of precedents, however, will create some uncertainty.