Legal Issues in Information Technology Industry: Country Experiences

Information Technology plays a very important role in today s world as it provides a platform for managing, sharing and retrieving information on a large scale through an integrated framework, which has several levels of protection for privacy as well as piracy. Though various countries have IT laws and Acts in regulation, there have been many issues and concerns about the misuse of IT. Sophistication and expansion of the usage of IT give rise to a new set of crimes and criminal behaviours on an ongoing basis. Cybercrime is the use of computers and Internet by criminals to perpetrate fraud and other crimes against companies and consumers. Another technology, "Peer-to-Peer", allows users to connect with each other directly and access files, thus attracting concern in the content originality of the owner. Cyber security regulations at different levels are made by governments and enforced on companies and organisations to curb cyber terrorism and to prevent crimes. The business world, as much as is dependent upon quick communications that IT provides, is also a victim in various aspects. Cyber squatting is an act, where some companies register names of popular trademarks as their own domain name. Such an act would be termed a crime under the Intellectual Property rights, besides being an unfair trade practice. The Internet facility is such where anyone can use it anywhere and anytime. In such a situation, libel statements made on the net can cause considerable harm to the victim individual or company. Global Trust Bank suffered the consequences of such an act, when the public succumbed to panic withdrawal. In such matters, it is not easy to pin the right criminal. Information Technology crimes are unique, as they show the crime, the outcome but, the criminal is able to remain anonymous. This book comprises articles which reflect all these issues. It is divided into two sections: the first section concentrates on various legal aspects of Information Technology and the second presents cases and experiences, with a deeper understanding of issues and problems faced in advanced countries.