Backward laws around technology ownership make self-driving cars more dangerous
Canadian born science fiction author Cory Doctorow writes many excellent articles which try to wake people up to the real technology debates we should be having, recently discussing self-driving cars . He makes the appropriate link to what I call "dishonest relationship misinformation" (DRM), which some incorrectly call Digital Rights Management due to a confusion on how technology works (they believe it is the interests of copyright holders being protected, when it is the rights of technology owners being revoked). I always like to extend the discussion beyond questions about whether owners should be treated as threats to asking why we can't move away from these unethical questions to making the obvious ethical choice. We never need to treat owners in an unethical (even if temporarily legally protected) way if we clarified who owns what. If a vehicle is owned by a taxi company or municipal transportation authority, it is obvious that its passengers should not be legal