EBay Asks U.S. Court to Ban User for Bad Language Censorship7/13/2000; 10:18:59 AM 'Internet "trading community" eBay Inc. (EBAY) said that it had asked a federal judge to bar a Chicago man from its Web site for using foul language and flouting its own attempts to ban him.''Although the company has "terminated 40 to 45 of his accounts in the last three months alone," Anderson has circumvented the company's moves by re-registering under other identities, Pursglove said.'I think this news article can help illustrate why we still need laws covering these issues. Some people think that if we just put the technology together and make everyone use it, we won't need laws convering privacy, or laws covering speech issues (like this one), or laws for much of anything online.But the fact of the matter is at some point all technical measures fail. The guy re-registers and you can't catch him. It turns out that thing you digitally signed wasn't from you, it's from someone who stole your digital key sequence. That anti-piracy measurement was circumvented and now people all over Asia are getting expensive software for free.Are we to let the guy on the system anyhow, or will we have recourse to the courts, as eBay seeks, as has been the civil court's purpose for hundreds of years, or does eBay have to leave the guy on the system because the technology is insufficient to keep him off? Are you still bound to the contract, despite the fact you did not truly sign it, because the technology says you are? Are we obligated to let piracy proliferate just because the tech doesn't exist to prevent it?Those particular issues are just illustration; the real question is one of reliance on technology, not a particular bit of technology. While I don't think anybody blatently comes out and says this, a lot of tech-savvy people think that technology will make the problem go away if we just wait long enough for the tech to develop... but that necessarily implies a dependance on technology that is too strong. We need laws to back the tech up so we can take recourse in human courts to deal with our human problems in human (and humane) ways.It's a delicate (and scary!) balance, but a necessary one.