The enforcement of laws regulating digital cultural content: a proposal

Abstract

Law is becoming increasingly digital in nature, and the State is increasingly using digital technology for the purposes of physical legal enforcement. This paper argues that this poses unique issues for legal regulation of cultural content, changing the relationship between the individual and the State. The paper focuses on laws in the UK and China to demonstrate how these issues have arisen, and what the potential consequences of this change could be. The paper culminates in arguing that legislatures and courts should be required to explicitly consider how digital technology influences, in a given law or case, the enforcement of law.