Legal scholars and law schools have begun to use the term cyberlaw to refer to a variety of legal issues that are often involved in online interactions (see cyberspace). While traditional legal fields such as contract law, property law, privacy, and jurisdiction do apply online, cyberlaw recog-nizes that certain common features of the digital world pose unique challenges.
The first question in any legal dispute is which court, if any, has jurisdiction. In the physical world there are well-demarcated spheres (in the United States) for federal, state, and municipal law. However, participants in an online transaction or other act may often be in different physi-cal jurisdictions. Indeed, the World Wide Web’s structure does not inherently follow physical boundaries, with link-age being largely semantic rather than geographical. Some Internet advocates such as John Perry Barlow have gone so far as to argue that the Web must develop its own laws and customs that reflect its technical and social nature—even-tually forming its own social contract.
A more pragmatic approach is taken by Lawrence Les-sig, who argues that a legal regime must evolve that takes into account the needs and concerns of both traditional physical jurisdictions and the new realm of cyberspace (see Lessig, Lawrence).
Diverse Issues
In practice, when crimes or disputes occur online, political pressure or legal duty will impel federal and state officials to become involved. For example, users of file-sharing ser-vices are being sued for alleged violations of copyright law (see file-sharing and P2P networks and intellectual property and computing). The question of whether the provider of an online service should be held responsible for violations by users must also be decided; in the United States, federal law has exempted providers from most legal liabilities. Matters can become even more complicated when people involved in a case are living in different coun-tries. (Many countries have lax or no regulation of online activity, and activity prohibited in countries such as the United States can flourish there—see, for example, online gambling.)
Many issues regarding freedom of speech and expres-sion arise in the online world. Should a blogger be accorded the rights of a traditional journalist? Should an American company such as Google or Yahoo! be held responsible for turning dissidents over to Chinese authorities?
The growth of immersive and persistent online game worlds such as Second Life raises other difficult questions for cyberlaw (see identity in the online world and online games). Can promises (whether business contracts or even marriage proposals) made through online personas (“ava-tars”) be binding? Who owns property (such as a house) created or purchased in the virtual world? What if some-one steals or vandalizes the virtual property? Should a vir-tual world be treated as a kind of parallel jurisdiction and perhaps allowed to have its own legal system and courts, perhaps even a form of limited sovereignty? While these questions may seem far-fetched, they take on more urgency as millions of people begin to spend a significant part of their waking time in a virtual world and generate economic activity that can be denominated in real money. The resolu-tion of these and other cyberlaw issues will both depend on and influence how the Internet itself is organized and gov-erned (see Internet organization and governance). For some organizations currently involved in trying to pro-mote cyber rights and shape policy, see cyberspace advo-cacy groups.
The first question in any legal dispute is which court, if any, has jurisdiction. In the physical world there are well-demarcated spheres (in the United States) for federal, state, and municipal law. However, participants in an online transaction or other act may often be in different physi-cal jurisdictions. Indeed, the World Wide Web’s structure does not inherently follow physical boundaries, with link-age being largely semantic rather than geographical. Some Internet advocates such as John Perry Barlow have gone so far as to argue that the Web must develop its own laws and customs that reflect its technical and social nature—even-tually forming its own social contract.
A more pragmatic approach is taken by Lawrence Les-sig, who argues that a legal regime must evolve that takes into account the needs and concerns of both traditional physical jurisdictions and the new realm of cyberspace (see Lessig, Lawrence).
Diverse Issues
In practice, when crimes or disputes occur online, political pressure or legal duty will impel federal and state officials to become involved. For example, users of file-sharing ser-vices are being sued for alleged violations of copyright law (see file-sharing and P2P networks and intellectual property and computing). The question of whether the provider of an online service should be held responsible for violations by users must also be decided; in the United States, federal law has exempted providers from most legal liabilities. Matters can become even more complicated when people involved in a case are living in different coun-tries. (Many countries have lax or no regulation of online activity, and activity prohibited in countries such as the United States can flourish there—see, for example, online gambling.)
Many issues regarding freedom of speech and expres-sion arise in the online world. Should a blogger be accorded the rights of a traditional journalist? Should an American company such as Google or Yahoo! be held responsible for turning dissidents over to Chinese authorities?
The growth of immersive and persistent online game worlds such as Second Life raises other difficult questions for cyberlaw (see identity in the online world and online games). Can promises (whether business contracts or even marriage proposals) made through online personas (“ava-tars”) be binding? Who owns property (such as a house) created or purchased in the virtual world? What if some-one steals or vandalizes the virtual property? Should a vir-tual world be treated as a kind of parallel jurisdiction and perhaps allowed to have its own legal system and courts, perhaps even a form of limited sovereignty? While these questions may seem far-fetched, they take on more urgency as millions of people begin to spend a significant part of their waking time in a virtual world and generate economic activity that can be denominated in real money. The resolu-tion of these and other cyberlaw issues will both depend on and influence how the Internet itself is organized and gov-erned (see Internet organization and governance). For some organizations currently involved in trying to pro-mote cyber rights and shape policy, see cyberspace advo-cacy groups.
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