Nobody can trust their own government these days. Especially if said laws concern copyright laws.
People, and the entities they comprise, earn trust by virtue of what they do. No more, no less.
In the case of copyright law, the individuals voting might truly think they are doing the right thing for the economy, as not all politicians are corrupt (or so I'd like to think).
I'm not aware of how much of it is taught in English, but the translation is roughly "Everything for the people, without the people's consent". The point of this phrase is that the governments/monarchies said they would act to protect their own people, apparently in good faith, but they only acted to protect themselves and the majority in power.
To directly address your point, those in government do not have "the same personal pressures as anyone else". Why? Because they are entrusted with representing an entire population.
How will the internet backbone cope if 90% of the traffic is being routed via China/Russia?
If someone is downloading copyright protected movies / music, the MPAA / RIAA respectively will come down on them and subject them to fines.
Now, I don't know anyone that has actually been convicted of this, however, there are accounts.
Any first/second hand accounts?
The technology will change once again to get around the legalese. Also of note, Japan has very strong anti-wiretapping laws[0] that prohibit carriers and other providers from port blocking, tapping or redirecting packets -- the only presumable legal way for these associations to check on downloaders would be to hold illegal content themselves and wait for a Japanese IP address to connect.
[0] http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%80%9A%E4%BF%A1%E3%81%AE%E7%...
PS: That page is not in English, so I don't think it's vary useful for the average HN reader.
IANAL and this is probably a stupid question, but it seems clever to me. ;)
As soon as a large fraction of the population uses it then legislators will start to care about it.
The only way to bring back the internet of the 90's is to start a new one. And once it is successful enough (which is only a matter of time) then legislators will once again become involved.
So what you really want is to kick off 90%+ of the internet population.
If you asked the RIAA exactly what they dream of, this is it.
