Many years ago, no laws existed to regulate the speed of the revolutionary invention called the "automobile." Likewise, in the early days of computing, no laws existed to regulate the usage of computers. Laws are created to respond to social problems, but, at the early stages of those great inventions, there were no social problems regarding computers that required the creation of laws. In the 1970s and early 1980s, users of business computers were generally operating networked computers in a highly supervised and controlled employment setting. Computer hobbyists and home users were generally limited to computers that were neither as technologically advanced as business computers, nor as interactive or inter-connected with other computers.

By the mid-1980s, however, technological advances brought personal computers into widespread use in homes, high schools, colleges, and businesses. Interconnectivity of computers via telephone lines and modems grew rapidly. Valuable...