Megan Lewis
Assignment for 11/1/10
Cyberlaw: Cross-Border Enforcement
The second half of the class discussion today will be about enforcing internet laws across borders. Crimes or illegal action on the internet can be broken into two categories: things that are illegal in both the victim and the host state, and things that are only illegal in the victim state. For the class discussion: What do you think about the various solution suggestions? Does your answer change for the two different categories?
Things that are illegal in the victim and the host state. When both the victim and the host state outlaw a certain online action, it at least gives those countries somewhere to start, but they often have different laws and different enforcement mechanisms that make cooperation difficult.
Computer fraud: This is an interesting situation, Russia outlaws computer fraud, but refuses to prosecute individuals who violate those laws when the crimes are aimed at foreign citizens.
Russian hackers in 2001: Read this news article
Russian hackers in 2009: Read this NY Times article
Privacy:
Spam: Many states outlaw spam. These examples show cooperation mechanisms that are in place now, the limitations of those mechanisms, and the need for a more comprehensive international approach.
FTC Report (Read the section on International Issues, bottom of p.23-33)
Things that are only illegal in the victim state.
This article provides a useful background to the types of issues in this category
Illegal Elsewhere, Legal in the US:
The French Yahoo Case—Yahoo! Inc. v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme, 433 F. 3d 1199 (2006).
The 2006 9th Circuit en banc decision: here (Section I and Section III of the plurality opinion and the dissenting opinion). Which do you think is more persuasive?
Optional: Michael Geist blog post
Illegal in the US, Legal Elsewhere:
Solutions? When you consider each of the following proposed solutions or aides to cross-border enforcement of internet laws, how does your perception of each mechanism change when you consider its usefulness and effectiveness for actions that fit into the first category versus the second category?
Convention on Cybercrime: Think about this both as it exists, and also just as an example of how an international treaty might address cross-border enforcement issues. What do you like about the idea of using a treaty to address cross border enforcement? What do you dislike?
Read this article about the treaty: Amalie M. Weber, The Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime, 18 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 425 (2003) here (Hein online) or here (Lexis/Nexis)
Optional:
Skim: Chapters II and III of the treaty itself.
Some Commentary: On Senate Ratification
The Internet Treaty proposed at the Internet Governance Forum: some of us read about this several weeks ago when we talked about ICANN, what do you think about it when considering cross-border enforcement? Does your opinion of this kind of mechanism change when thinking about activities that are globally illegal as opposed to activities that are only illegal in certain States? Read this article
Technical Enforcement Mechanisms: Scholar Joel Reidenberg suggests that technical mechanisms are the future of enforcement of internet laws.
Joel R. Reidenberg, States and Internet Enforcement, 1 U. Ottawa L. & Tech. J. 213 (2004) (Read Section 4. Enforcement Through Technological Instruments)
Other Solutions? If there are other solutions that you think might work better than the options I have provided, feel free to discuss those in class too!