If I wanted [...] to regulate a wheel, it's unlikely I'd succeed. If I turned up, pointed out that bank robbers always make their escape on wheeled vehicles [...]
His point overall is sound but I think a better analogy would be to compare the infrastructure of the internet to roads and Google to a GPS -- If there's an area of a city where crime is known to take place e.g. where drugs, prostitution or stolen goods can be found, law-makers, without thinking terribly hard about the problem, place an onus on the GPS maker to block out those roads from being found.
The end result is that the places where illicit goods and services were available remain but are slightly more difficult to find without direct instructions or having foreknowledge of how to get there. No problem has actually been resolved, just swept aside and the GPS maker is the one who has to do the work for no gain - in fact it goes against their core function of navigating roads.
His point overall is sound but I think a better analogy would be to compare the infrastructure of the internet to roads and Google to a GPS -- If there's an area of a city where crime is known to take place e.g. where drugs, prostitution or stolen goods can be found, law-makers, without thinking terribly hard about the problem, place an onus on the GPS maker to block out those roads from being found.
The end result is that the places where illicit goods and services were available remain but are slightly more difficult to find without direct instructions or having foreknowledge of how to get there. No problem has actually been resolved, just swept aside and the GPS maker is the one who has to do the work for no gain - in fact it goes against their core function of navigating roads.