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A comment on Signal's president vows to reject UK law on message scanning before encryption. Parent comment

Re:Signal's president vows to reject UK law on message scann... by dec0dedab0de on Saturday July 15, 2023 @01:42PM (#36739254)
Society should require that the spirit and purpose of any law be included as a preamble to that law's text and be used in the interpretation, application, and future adaptation of that law.

I agree, and it mostly is. I'm pretty sure it is always recorded when a congressman speaks about a bill, plus they always show dissenting opinions of the SCOTUS.

However, one major problem is that language changes with time. Words go out of favor, and change meaning. Sometimes they change their meaning to be the exact opposite. Sometimes there are contenpary dictionaries with conflicting definitions.

I think all laws should have an expiration date, and have to be debated, and possibly reworded again and again over the generations.

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Re:Signal's president vows to reject UK law on message scann... by ciabattabread on Saturday July 15, 2023 @02:42PM (#36739734)
> I think all laws should have an expiration date, and have to be debated, and possibly reworded again and again over the generations.

Until “thou shalt not kill” gets held hostage by a senator who wants a subsidy for a coal mine.

Exempt those kinds of laws - murder, theft, false witness? Congrats, you have a de-facto theocracy.

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Re:Signal's president vows to reject UK law on message scann... by I_am_uncreative on Saturday July 15, 2023 @07:37PM (#36741930)
Isn't that kind of the point of the Common Law though? Murder is often not defined in statute and simply has a Common Law definition.
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