Well, nothing could be farther from the truth. Most of us don t even care about Pentagon computers. Belaboring the obvious, the Internet has changed significantly in the past five years. It is the intent of this column to help cast at least a small ray of illumination on these changes. Each month, I ll examine a significant case or two, moving chronologically forward to modern times.
New technologies have profound effects on the world.
With the advent of the telegraph, communications over long distances became commonplace and changed the manner in which business was conducted, news was disseminated, and people interacted with one another on a daily basis. As a result, the law was forced to change and expand in order to deal with new problems that arose in the formation of contracts, ascertaining jurisdiction, regulating interstate commerce, and generally defining how society ordered its conduct through the use of this new medium. Similar problems arose with the common availability of the telephone. However, with the telephone, sexually oriented communication in an anonymous environment took its foothold, creating a new and wholly unique set of legal dilemmas. Society responded to conflict by enacting laws and resolving legal disputes as they arose.