What is Cyber Law? Need

What is Cyber Law?

Cyber Law (also called Internet Law or IT Law) is the area of law that deals with activities, crimes, and legal issues related to computers, digital systems, networks, and the internet.

Cyber Law is the law governing cyberspace. Cyberspace is a very wide term and includes computers, networks, software, data storage devices.

(Such as hard disks, USB disks etc.), the Internet, websites, emails and even electronic devices such as cell phones, ATM machines etc.

Law encompasses the rules of conduct:

• 1. That have been approved by the government, and
• Which are in force over a certain territory, and
• Which must be obeyed by all persons on that territory?

Violation of these rules could lead to government action such as imprisonment or fine or an order to pay compensation.

Cyber law encompasses laws relating to:

• Cyber Crimes
• Electronic and Digital Signatures
• Intellectual Property
• Data Protection and Privacy

Cybercrimes are unlawful acts where the computer is used either as a tool or a target or both. The enormous growth in electronic commerce (e-commerce) and online share trading has led to a phenomenal spurt in incidents of cybercrime. Electronic signatures are used to authenticate electronic records. Digital signatures are one type of electronic signature. Digital signatures satisfy three major legal requirements – signer authentication, message authentication and message integrity.

The technology and efficiency of digital signatures makes them more trustworthy than hand written signatures.

Intellectual property is refers to creations of the human mind e.g. a story, a song, a painting, a design etc. The facets of intellectual property that relate to cyber space are covered by cyber law.

These include:

• Copyright law in relation to computer software, computer source code, websites, z cell phone content etc.
  
• Software and source code licenses
  
• Trademark law with relation to domain names, Meta tags, mirroring, framing, linking etc.
  
  
• Semiconductor law which relates to the protection of semiconductor integrated z circuits design and layouts,
  
  
• Patent law in relation to computer hardware and software.

Data protection and privacy laws aim to achieve a fair balance between the privacy rights of the individual and the interests of data controllers such as banks, hospitals, email service providers etc. These laws seek to address the challenges to privacy caused by collecting, storing and transmitting data using new technologies.

Need for Cyber Law

There are various reasons why it is extremely difficult for conventional law to cope with cyberspace. Some of these are discussed below.

• Cyberspace is an intangible dimension that is impossible to govern and regulate using conventional law.
  
  
• Cyberspace has complete disrespect for jurisdictional boundaries. A person in India could break into a bank’s electronic vault hosted on a computer in USA and transfer millions of Rupees to another bank in Switzerland, all within minutes. All he would need is a laptop computer and a cell phone.
  
  
• Cyberspace handles gigantic traffic volumes every second. Billions of emails are crisscrossing the globe even as we read this, millions of websites are being accessed every minute and billions of dollars are electronically transferred around the world by banks every day.
  
  
• Cyberspace offers enormous potential for anonymity to its members. Readily available encryption software and steganographic tools that seamlessly hide information within image and sound files ensure the confidentiality of information exchanged between cyber-citizens.
  
  
• Cyberspace offers never-before-seen economic efficiency. Billions of dollars worth of software can be traded over the Internet without the need for any government licenses, shipping and handling charges and without paying any customs duty.
  
  
• Electronic information has become the main object of cybercrime. It is characterized by extreme mobility, which exceeds by far the mobility of persons, goods or other services. International computer networks can transfer huge amounts of data around the globe in a matter of seconds.
  
  
• A software source code worth crores of rupees or a movie can be pirated across the globe within hours of their release.
  
  
• Theft of corporeal information (e.g. books, papers, CD ROMs, floppy disks) is easily covered by traditional penal provisions. However, the problem begins when electronic records are copied quickly, inconspicuously and often via telecommunication facilities. Here the original’ information, so to say, remains in the possession’ of the owner’ and yet information gets stolen.