Scope of Cyber Laws

          The rapid development of information technology posed certain challenges for the law that are not confined to a particular category of law, but arise in diverse areas of law, such as criminal law, intellectual property law, contract and tort. Of late, owing to the rapid development of the internet and the World Wide Web, various unprecedented problems have emerged. These problems concern the issues of free speech, intellectual property, safety, equity, privacy, e- commerce and jurisdiction and are governed by the Cyber Law. The branch of law which regulates the technological aspects of information or information processing is called Cyber Law. The scope of different problems presented by the advancement of technology includes:

1. dealing with the computer hackers or those who introduce viruses;
2. categorization of 'contract for the acquisition of software' on similar footing with contract which deal with goods;
3. dealing with the phenomenon of mass consumer purchases from other jurisdictions under e- commerce;
4. existence of copyright in a computer programme and question of patent protection;
5. question of destruction of copyright due to the wide spread dissemination of text on networks;
6. regulation of 'cyber squatting' and trafficking in domain names under law;
7. the question of regulation of the content of material on the internet and freedom of information and expression;
8. the protection of the privacy of the individual amid the increasing capacity for storing, gathering, and collating information.

The existing legislations and statutes need to be reviewed to determine whether they can address the issues arising out of the new ICT area. If the current laws are inadequate to deal with the problems, national governments and / or appropriate regional and international bodies need to either revise the existing laws or enact new laws to provide individual, corporate and government users with maximum trust and security.