Courting contempt online: Newspapers aren't allowed to publish information about a defendant's previous convictions during another trial. But a judge has ruled that internet archives are different. "This information was carried in newspaper reports at the time of the trials, which could routinely be accessed by anyone who looked in paper archives contained in public libraries. This would not raise an issue of contempt. But the trial judge took a different view of the internet archive, ruling that online information was, in effect, published anew every time someone accessed it."
The law is strange. I understood that the text of the law was open to interpretation based on common sense, and that's what precedent was. But currently law appears to be more about obeying the letters and not the spirit. Like, the not-prisoners-of-war in Cuba, the various privacy infringements around the world because new technology wasn't covered in them. Law isn't something you get out of because the words don't cover your exact situation! Not a contract where the objective is to screw the other party! It's a joint understanding of right and wrong. Gah. We need more intelligent judges with a stronger sense of honour (and the incentives in place to make this so), and a more powerful legal system.
Courting contempt online: Newspapers aren't allowed to publish information about a defendant's previous convictions during another trial. But a judge has ruled that internet archives are different. "This information was carried in newspaper reports at the time of the trials, which could routinely be accessed by anyone who looked in paper archives contained in public libraries. This would not raise an issue of contempt. But the trial judge took a different view of the internet archive, ruling that online information was, in effect, published anew every time someone accessed it."
The law is strange. I understood that the text of the law was open to interpretation based on common sense, and that's what precedent was. But currently law appears to be more about obeying the letters and not the spirit. Like, the not-prisoners-of-war in Cuba, the various privacy infringements around the world because new technology wasn't covered in them. Law isn't something you get out of because the words don't cover your exact situation! Not a contract where the objective is to screw the other party! It's a joint understanding of right and wrong. Gah. We need more intelligent judges with a stronger sense of honour (and the incentives in place to make this so), and a more powerful legal system.