Our laws are based on people, places and things. But technology
and the Internet aren’t. The Internet is not a place. It’s
everywhere and nowhere in particular. Digital information is not
a thing. It flows in tiny packets and exists in multiple copies
just to be seen and used. And people are becoming great files of
data as companies track everywhere we go online, how long we
stay, what we look at and buy, where we go in the world, who our
friends are and how we interact with them. Technology and the
ways we use it will change the role of law and lawyers. Courts
and legislatures are struggling to keep up with the fast pace of
technology. New laws and cases are quickly outdated. For example
in 2007, the Ninth Circuit issued Perfect 10 v. Google, a
copyright case with a cutting-edge description of how the
Internet works. That description is now wrong and so is most of
the basis for the holding. Recently, a jury awarded Apple
$1billion in a patent infringement case. The complaint was filed
in April 2011. Since th