On Saturday, February 16, 2002, at 10:43 PM, Tim May wrote: > --excerpt from a possible world-- > > "TEHERAN -- The Protection of the Righteous Act properly applies to > activity outside the Muslim world, religious prosecutors said in their > case against an American company charged with selling books insulting > to the Prophet. "A construction of the PRA that applied it only within > the borders of the Muslim nations would thwart the faithful's intent to > prevent circumvention technology from being available," the Teheran > Religious Magistrate told President Rafsanani in papers filed late > last week. "The ease with which materials can be moved around the > Internet makes it impossible to conceive of an effective PRA statute > that applied solely within Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and other Muslim > states." That construction was the faithful's intent, as shown by its > prohibition against importation of certain technology, prosecutors > argued. > > "The PRA authorizes us to arrest, and if necessary, kidnap, those in > violation of the PRA anywhere in the world," Ayotollah Raghedi said. > "It is no different from what the Great Satan has been doing for many > years," he added. > > --end excerpt-- > > If the U.S. can claim the entire world must obey its laws, so can Saudi > Arabia, or Peru, or Bratislavistan.
To expand on this a bit, the problem is that at the founding of these United States, there was essentially no intent to regulate the dealings of other nations so long as their dealings did not directly affect the security of the land mass of the U.S. or the safety of their citizens while visiting other countries. (The kidnapping of Americans by the Barbary Pirates being a good example of where U.S. military action was taken in foreign lands.) Not even "intellectual property" was treated as a case where U.S. laws applied worldwide. Indeed, U.S. factories did very well by out-and-out stealing the methods and machinery of the English mills. New England was aptly named. International treaties and conventions have changed all this, and now that Pax Americana is being extended by force and threat into all corners of the globe, American laws are now claimed to apply universally. --Tim May "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." --John Stuart Mill
