> Also, please remember that in Europe there is no such thing as "the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law." The intent of the law IS the law.
On the other hand, there is the issue how the intent of laws (which were often passed by highly incompetent politicians, in particular when IT topics are involved) is to be interpreted.
as long as we cannot provide some objective foundations for the meaning of words we're pretty much left with the law constantly being interpreted, and even if somehow laws and enforcement becomes completely independent of the fallibility of human minds, as long as we are subject to it we ourselves will have different interpretation from time to time
and even if the law somehow becomes a perfect ideal filter for separating good from bad ... its enforcement will run into the problem of false positives and negatives as long as it deals with messy real world events and their various imperfect impressions found in whatever evidence is collected in a case.
well, of course a more competent electorate and politicians would be nice anyway, but now we run into the problem of competence in the eyes of who?
On the other hand, there is the issue how the intent of laws (which were often passed by highly incompetent politicians, in particular when IT topics are involved) is to be interpreted.