[NTLK] SOPA Legislation

[Lloyd Conway]

     You're right on point, Tony, with mentioning both the words of Jesus Christ (grounded, as His ministry was, in Old Testament law, making the origin of the principle even more ancient) and Justinian's 6th-Century 'Digest of Roman Law,' also sourced to material dating back centuries earlier.  I'd ass English Common Law' to the list, too.  The  purpose of SOPA is clearly to give the powerful a hammer to use as they wish.  In the US, it's a trend dating back to the 1960s - RICO allows for 'civil forefiture' of property assumed to have been used or obtained unlawfully, prior to charges being filed or guilt established.  The principle is the same - disarm the target without having to live within the law.  US 'family law' is similarly rife with this kind of thing:  'Protection orders' are issued without regard to evidence, and they strip the target of his rights just as effectively as if he'd been tried and found guilty.
Regards,
-Lloyd Conway
 Charlotte, Michigan
P.S.    On a happier note, I finally got my MP 120 to connect to my MacBook and to transfer addresses, notes and calendar info to .txt, Address Book and iCal formats.  
    
 

"Actually any law that breaches the ancient "innocent until proven guilty
presumption" is bad law.  There is good reason why this presumption has been
adopted as it recognizes that a false negative (resulting in a not guilty
ruling when in fact that person was guilty) is better than a false positive
(resulting in a guilty ruling when in fact the person was innocent).  It's
so ancient that traces of it can be seen in 6th Century Roman Law and Jesus
Christ predates that example by promoting it in Matthew 13:24-30 circa 30
AD.

Doesn't the DMCA also have similar provisions where accusers can have the
accused banned from an internet service without needing to prove the
accused's guilt?

Cheers

Tony Kan

Christchurch
New "
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