Laws on Internet
History shows that with the offspring of a societal changing invention comes a legal flux that requires parsing out to establish fair precedent. The Internet vividly displays this paradigm as issues dealing with the laws of networking sites, peer sharing programs, and security of the Internet continue to adapt. Just like laws of privacy and freedom regarding telephone, mail, and cellular phones were established overtime, the Internet required an entire different section of legal protection.
• The Internet refers to a broad web of digital communication and sharing through a peer to peer basis or website domain. Networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter posed a difficult situation for lawmakers as these sites encompass the broad spectrum of the Internet and various ways to communicate through it. Although people share pictures, information, and content with friends and networks, there remains a certain level of legal protection to their information but laws of this nature continue to change. Court cases dealing with networking sites have ruled on laws of privacy, protection, and the very nature of free speech over the Internet.
• Peer sharing programs where users of the Internet can exchange music, video, and pictures pose another complex web of issues. No laws of the American system appropriately diagnosed the entanglement of copyright and privacy issues that these programs posed until the mid-1990s. Although laws of this nature dealt with similar corresponding issues in other areas, it remained difficult to adjudicate until some type of legal precedent rose from a certain consensus on how to process the legal ramifications of these programs. Even though some of these switched to paid versions that followed laws of copyright and protection, some simply allow their users to share whatever they would like at their own risk.
• The overall security of the internet also continues to adapt. Malicious software that can access other people’s information or fake websites that request credit card information required a new form of criminal prosecution. This type of theft and the prevention through stronger laws of individual protection remain in question in the American legal system.
The lack of clear boundaries and possession on the Internet creates an interesting predicament for judges that never before used, or would otherwise know of the intricacies regarding the world wide web. Laws of copyright protection and freedom of speech require further delineation as the Internet continues to grow and change.