Law and Ethics - Take 2

I once said, When you lie, you act unethically. If your lies hurt people you will be prosecuted. This time I would like to talk about HOW we make such laws work.

Russia has a handful set of laws target at fighting criminal behavior in the new age. For example, to prevent money forgery Russian Duma passed a special law in 2002. It said that each owner of a color printer/scanner/copier (or any other color copy equipment for that matter) is obliged to register it in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the police) and do a monthly tech checkup on it. Also, at times when the device is not being used, it must be stored in a secure safe. Furthermore, to work with the equipment one must first take a special test on safety precautions and usage rules for the device. Sounds like something one might propose as a weapon law, not a computer peripheral law. In fact, this law was so absurd, that two years after its release Duma voted to exclude the Ministry of Internal Affairs (police) part of the law. As noted by the Duma Safety Committee, role of the law-enforcement, as it was specified in that act, is excessive, breaks the rights of the proprietor and allows workers of the militia (police) to enter industrial and office accommodations without due bases and without consent of the owner. Members of Duma also noted that abundance of computers and multiplying mechanisms on territory of the Russian Federation makes registration practically impossible, especially considering absence of the device ID system.

To prevent indecent behaviour government passed an unethical law itself. Corruption is unethical even if it is just a law that discriminates citizens for the benefit of the government. As any severe unethical behaviour is eventually punished, so is passing an unethical law.