Computers and Law

- Srishti Mehra – Team 2

What is Computer Law?

• Cross over of a number of legal areas affecting:• Design and use of computers and software

• Transmission and privacy of data

• Digital and electronic information security

• Copyrights and intellectual property

Areas of Law

Intellectual Property

• Designs of hardware and software – protected by patents

• Logos of various products – protected by trademark

• Programs and information – protect by copyrights

• Major area of concern for computer law• Transmission of protected information/data over internet

Privacy

• Protecting confidential information during transactions

• Finance information, identity information, personal data fall in this category

• Related to internet security and anti-hacking laws

Hacking

• Area that has seen great deal of growth recently

• Laws designed to punish individuals who:• Attempt to break into computer or network of others

• Steal or use personal information without permission

• Take full/partial control over other’s computer or accounts

Spam

• An area that got a great deal of government attention

• SPAM is unwanted email communication

• Usually pertains to commercial interests or hacking attempts

• Also been used to conceal viruses and malware

Others

• Laws on software, end-user and open-source licenses

• Laws on product liability and warranties

• Laws on professional liability of individual developers

• Contract Law

• Trade secrets of intellectual property

• Limits on encryption (used to protect copyrighted property)

Others

• Laws involving export of hardware and software across states

• Laws governing trade and taxation online

• Laws for consumer protection and advertising

• Laws on censorship versus freedom of expression

• Laws regarding public and individual access to information on internet

Jurisdiction

• Jurisdiction for computer law is tricky

• Does not fall under any one state/country

• Practically, user is subject to laws of the state or nation

where he/she goes online

• Major problem – whether to assume internet as physical space

Internet Law

Internet Law

• In their essay "Law and Borders -- The Rise of Law in Cyberspace", David R. Johnson and David G. Post argue that it became necessary for the Internet to govern itself and instead of obeying the laws of a particular country, "Internet citizens" will obey the laws of electronic entities like service providers. Instead of identifying as a physical person, Internet citizens will be known by their usernames or email addresses (or, more recently, by their Facebook accounts). 

• Internet can be self-regulated as being its own trans-national "nation“

• Although, the nature of Internet Law remains a legal paradigm shift

• Still in the process of development

• Leaving aside some examples, there are 4 primary modes of regulation

• These forces or regulators of the Internet do not act independently of each other

Law

• As the numerous United States statutes, codes, regulations

• many actions on the Internet are already subject to conventional laws

• Regarding both transactions conducted and content posted

• Substantial portions of conduct that is unlawful off-line is presumptively unlawful online

• Examples: gambling, child pornography, and fraud

Architecture

• Mechanisms that deal with how information can and cannot be transmitted across the Internet

• Internet filtering software

• Encryption programs

• Basic architecture of TCP/IP protocols and user interfaces 

Fall under this regulation

Norms

• Social interaction conduct is regulated by social norms and conventions 

• As certain patterns of conduct will cause an individual to be ostracized from our real world society

• So too certain actions will be censored or self-regulated by the norms 

Markets

• Internet creates a virtual marketplace for information

•  Information affects everything from • the comparative valuation of services to the traditional valuation of stocks

• Increase in popularity of the Internet• as a means for transacting and forum for advertising

• Has brought the laws of supply and demand to cyberspace.

•  Market forces of supply and demand affect• Connectivity to internet, cost of bandwith and software available to

facilitate the creation, posting, and use of internet content

Net Neutrality

• Area that affects the regulation of the infrastructure of the Internet

•  Every packet of data sent and received

• Passes through routers and transmission infrastructure

• That is owned by a collection of private and public entities

• Like companies, universities and the government

Free speech on Internet

• In comparison to traditional print-based media

•  The accessibility and relative anonymity of cyber space

•  Raises questions and magnifies legal complexities

• Relating to the freedom and regulation of speech in cyberspace

Examples

Cases under Computer/Internet Law

•  Jake Barker incident: Limits of obscene Internet postings were at issue

• The controversial distribution of the DeCSS code

• Gutnic v Dow Jones: Libel laws were considered in the context of online publishing

Future

Future of Computer Law

• Internet and computes are constantly growing

• Thus, so is vulnerability of areas if crime

• Internet law is not explicitly defined but as predicted by some

• The world might need a governing body for this particularly

• So possible changes include• Widening of areas of law and crime

• New internet law governing body built

Bibliography

• Resources used for this presentation include:• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_aspects_of_computing

• http://www.hg.org/compute.html