Internet Poses Challenge to Traditional Definitions of Law
Laws are the methods by which social order is enforced. Laws shape almost every aspect of modern life across the world, independent of social status, location, age, wealth, or any factor that may differentiate one person from another. Each country has a different way in which the law for that country is devised, as well as what is guaranteed in the code of law. Laws are generally meant to ensure rights, wither those of individuals, groups of people, or the government. There are several common areas of laws that transcend most systems. These sections are criminal law, constitutional law, contract law, tort law, property laws, and equity and trust laws. Traditional understanding of law has been challenged by the growth of the Internet. Laws have not yet managed to react to the sweeping changes that have accompanied the Internet. Law has to adapt to a world in which national borders are declining in importance to legal issues. Internet law has been struggling to catch up to reality since the inception of the Internet.
For a purchase made over the Internet, laws from three different nations may affect the transaction: the laws in effect where the purchaser is using a computer, the laws of the counter where the server is located, and the country from which the item is bought. Internet law has not yet determined a definitive answer to which countries contract laws would over the transaction. Until a firm Internet law is established to deal wit issues of libel and slander, tort law is especially fragile. Tort laws are among the areas where there is the greatest variation from country to country. Until there is a system of Internet laws which is universally agreed to, speech that would be protected under one country’s law may open a person to a law suit from a resident of another country.
It is possible that Internet laws may develop independently of efforts to establish even a single internationally Internet law. The denizens of the Internet have shown a tendency to police themselves. Despite claims that the Internet would be a wild west show with no standards of decency, most websites and Internet users follow unwritten Internet laws. Internet forums have copied one aspect of the wild west from before law was firmly established and provided the basis for later justice: vigilantism. The “criminal” on these forums are referred to as “trolls.” These trolls attempt to arouse anger or other from emotions from other forum users. They accomplish this by posting outlandish or inflammatory statements to try to get attention. While some people, “victims,” fall prey to these tricks, more experienced users often respond by informing other users of an attempted trolling. These more experience users serve as police. Many forums also have moderators. These moderators have the ability to “ban” users. These ban can be seen as punitive actions, because they remove the troll from general society, just as prisons remove criminals from general society.
