Essay on the International Perspective of Cyber Law !
Cyber criminals pose a major threat to computer networks all around the world. Therefore, efforts are being made to work out a Model Anti-Cyber. Criminal Law to prevent and control cyber crime at global level. A Special Expert Working Group meeting was convened in October, 1998 in Tokyo under the auspices, of the United Nations to sort out legal problems involved in combating against cyber criminality.
The European Committee of Experts on Crime in Cyber-Space prepared two Draft Conventions Cyber crimes in April, 2001 to work out strategies and fostering international co-operation for tackling the problem of security against cyber crimes.
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In view of the expanding dimensions of cyber crimes, there is urgent need for a model legislation to tackle the problem of growing incidence of these crimes. It hardly needs to be stated that the criminal law must continue to evolve if it is to adequately address to new developments in technology.
It is true that the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) finalised two treaties in 1996 which were commonly known as “Internet Treaties” for countering the challenges posed by internet but treaties talked only about the right of communication and did not contain provisions on right of reproduction.
Moreover, the treaties were neutral on the subject of liability of Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) and the issue was left to be decided by the member nations through their legislative mechanism. In these circumstances, the treaties were of little use to resolve the liability of ISP’s which is a controversial legal issue emerging from cyber space which is the result of the very nature of digital networks.
The European community adopted the directives on electronic Commerce containing set of rules clarifying the standards to be applied to the various online intermediaries as a result of their involvement in illegal or infringing material put on their Internet facilities by third parties.
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A glance at the country-wise legal approach to cyber crimes would reveal that many countries have adopted cyber law in their legal system to meet the challenges against the Internet criminal activities. Countries like U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Japan, Phillipines, Peru, Turkey, India etc. have updated their cyber law while others have partially updated them.