Technology And Law
Technology has been in regular expansion and renewal. It has been difficult to determine its pace or its extent. As every other expanding substance, its growth also needs to be checked to not allow it to become a curse for the community. There has to be an organization, atop that can hinder its entrance at places where it is prohibited. One of such places is the privacy of the people. The indulgence of technology in people’s life should be voluntarily and not obligatory. But, what about those intruders who trespass these limits? Law is the enforcement that can prevent them. The context of law has also changed considerably, while trying to change the technological interference.
How has Technology affected Law?
The world today have adapted to the consumer needs. This led to the emergence of consumer technology in the end on 19th century. This could easily be misused due to inadaptability of law enforcements [Susan W. Brenner, 2007]. The basic requirement for any technological advancement is a machine and a program. Technology is handicapped without it. The extensive eruption of technology has forced the lawmakers & the manufacturers to cover software under its laws, known as the Copyright Law. No person can plagiarize or copy the software, without consent of the owner. Legal proceedings follow in case of negligence. Besides, the US laws have made it mandatory for every software manufacturer to get its software covered under this law. Only free to use software are exempted from the guidelines. Copying the files from one computer to another, also known as P2P transfer have varied outcomes. Some countries declare it to be feasible, while others prohibited, but no legal enforcement has been backed behind this issue [David Carnes, 2009].
Technologic advancement also affects other areas such as transportation and those dealing with physical appliances. Law was modified to suite the needs of those working with machines. Any causality at the operations site was considered to be a fault of the owner, and he was liable to reimburse the affected. Machine Laws & Civil Laws were formed to assist the issues.
How has Law affected Technology?
Law comes in the way of technology, only when it gets awry. The law has been formed for technology followers to do two things- either obey it, or face prosecution. As no middle way is left, the technologists have also amended themselves according to law. The law also thinks it to be beneficial, but it expects technology to amend itself accordingly. The law enforcements have even stopped some technologies from expanding such as cloning in humans. Besides, law has also restricted the progress of a patented experiment about the increased amount of amino acid in the blood [Dana Remus Irwin, 2008]. These technological advancement were thought to inappropriate for the advancement of society. Besides, the law has also restricted some other technological advancement such as researching the disasters of nature such as earthquake and tsunami. Technology is based on experimental adaptations, results and any such experiments can harm the humanity, and thus, they have been barred [Douglas B. Fuller, 2009].
Encouragement of law has also led to technological advancements. Without the approval of lawmakers, the technological advancement in the case of medicines and defence machinery would not have been possible. The expansion of technology to develop narco-analysis test and lie-detector test has been done only when the legal regulations wanted them to. The forensic reporting is also one of them. The law has even enforced itself over some technological advancements such as detection of child’s sex, when it is still in its mother’s womb. This has resulted in a decreased rate of female infanticide. Abortion has also been considered as unlawful and the practice or advancement of such technology is bound to be exempted. Despite all this, several new inventions, that take the technological advancements through a wrong path, are yet to be subjected under the law and strict enforcements of which can yield a better society around us.
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