What are the Laws in Cyberspace?

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In a recent article from .NET magazine Gary Marshall stated that there has been talk about the government attempting to make a law, that all persons wishing to access the internet will require a ID and password; this will enable the government to track all transactions, interactions, page views, etc. It is rather scary to think that eventually our lives will be totally and completely, monitored and controlled by the government. Anonymity is a major issue with Cyberlaw, but does that mean that our lives should be transparent evade this issue?

Now obviously laws are created to protect people, but law in Cyberspace is extremely difficult to impose, and even more difficult to enforce laws. Naturally we are expected to abide by the laws of our particular area, whether it is New York and US laws, or Moscow and Russia laws. Now both of these regions have different laws so jurisdiction is a big issue on the Net, as we cannot impose our laws on another country, as they cannot either. Due to the architecture of the internet it seems that the government is attempting to develop more and more laws to regulate this environment that is not intended to be regulated; the unfortunate consequence is the loss of many freedoms that we as Americans are accustomed to. Most of the “cyberlaws” put in place restrict the flow of information, particularly in the area of free speech; one of the most significant was the Child Pornography Law of 1996, as it has been argued that this violates our 1st amendment rights.

There are also many other areas that are restricted under laws in Cyberspace, these include several key issues that have become major concerns over recent years. These issues include, but are not limited to cyber squatting, phishing, spam, and piracy. As time goes on there are more laws developed to circumvent these crimes. I do feel that there will always be issues of jurisdiction and sovereignty which make these laws extremely difficult to develop and enforce.