Legal Research Blog

 

Broadening Legal Horizons: An Introduction to the Virtual World

Ever-growing virtual environments are opening the eyes of many to a whole new legal frontier. As the field expands from solely entertaining purposes to a more practical approach, lawyers are realizing the potential for protection regarding intellectual property. With the military utilizing virtual software for both training and therapeutic purposes, other businesses are starting to understand the value of virtual interaction. Unfortunately, the legal aspect of this atmosphere can be difficult to grasp, particularly for lawyers who have been practicing for years. There is no precedent as of yet proclaiming rights for virtual users making this a practice that will require a great deal of interpretation and flexibility on the part of those eventually arguing cases.

In order to expand knowledge and hopefully gain new ideas in the field, the Second Life Bar Association was created. Second Life is the main attraction when it comes to virtual environments. Offering both a social atmosphere for individual users and communication strategies for business, Second Life has begun attracting the attention of many lawyers breaking into this innovative field. Through their set up of SLBA, their own form of online interaction, lawyers are free to share their knowledge, brainstorm possible problems that could occur in the virtual world, along with how these would be solved. In addition, several law schools are beginning to offer courses covering this topic in the hopes of producing a new generation of lawyers open to this interpretive new field. This approach to protecting rights is just another way in which the legal world is keeping pace with technological advancements.

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Lawdable Quotes: Alexis de Tocqueville

“There is one universal law that has been formed, or at least adopted…by the majority of mankind. That law is justice. Justice forms the cornerstone of each nation’s law.”

~ Alexis de Tocqueville

Lawdable Quotes: Publilius Syrus

The judge is condemned when the guilty is absolved.

~Publilius Syrus

Explosion in Global Cyber Crime

According to the BBC, organized cyber crimes such as credit card or banking fraud are increasing at a rate of 40% per year, making this sector of crime the fastest growing in the world. Big and small time hackers worldwide are staking a claim to this 100 billion dollar industry.

Some might be surprised to hear that Brazil is home to the greatest number of cyber criminals. Like many other developing countries, Brazil is home to thousands of poor hackers looking to make a profit by skimming small transactions from bank accounts and sending phishing emails requesting credit card information. While billions of dollars are lost through cyber crime each year, some perpetrators argue that they steal from those who can afford it, and only in tiny amounts. One young Brazilian hacker named Fabio justifies his career, stating:

“I’m not trying to rob anyone who wakes up early in the morning and takes the bus, and has to get home and feed his kids, and doesn’t have money.”

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FTC Proposes Limits to "Behavioral Targeting"

The advent of the internet has raised some harrowing questions regarding the interplay between privacy and free content. In an attempt to address this new frontier, the FTC recently proposed a new set of guidelines, developed with the input of town hall meetings, regulating the tracking of internet usage history. By allowing users to opt out of cookies when visiting the websites that tracking companies follow, the FTC looks to maintain the privacy of indivuals in the face of behavioral targeting.

Some pro-privacy activist groups are attacking the practice, which allows advertisers to increase revenue by pushing ads relevant to a person’s browsing history, arguing that over time individual profiles could reveal a person’s identity. However, several industries, such as the news media, oppose the new guidelines, maintaining that these types of practices are necessary to keep content free during their transition to the internet. While the FTC guidelines would be voluntary, some states may follow suit with mandatory laws, making some nervous that the already low returns on internet ads could fall even further.

Source: Washington Post

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