Although few would deny that internet has had a major impact upon criminal behaviour, there is much less consensus as to what that impact has been.
The internet is about a decade old. Before it emerged, bodies of computer law existed, as did a num...
Although few would deny that internet has had a major impact upon criminal behaviour, there is much less consensus as to what that impact has been.
The internet is about a decade old. Before it emerged, bodies of computer law existed, as did a number of very relevant discourses within the academic literature that inform our understanding of the impacts of technology upon society and the way they related to crimes.
Perhaps the most significant development of our time, even more significant than the end of the cold war, is the revolution in information technology which we are currently experiencing.
Recent and anticipated changes in telecommunications technology in light of the convergence of communications and computing are truly breathtaking and have already had a significant impact on many aspects of life. Banking, stock exchange, air traffic control, telephones, electronic power and a wide range of institutions of health, welfare and education are largely dependant on information technology and telecommunications for their operation.
The exponential growth of this technology, the increase in its capacity and accessibility and the decrease in its cost, has brought about revolutionary changes in commerce, communications, entertainment and most other institutions.
Especially, digital technology has rapidly developed to increase various kinds of digital information. Even if legal ground is required to protect the information, law and judgement of electronic information that has intangible economic values are remarkably separated from requirements in the era of digital environment.
The study examined electronic information related illegal act that criminal justice organizations take actions from legal point of views, and that the court punished based on legal ground.
Also the study classified the infringement of electronic information into two types, in other words, digital works that could be regulated under current legal system and online game items that could not be regulated or be out of regulations.
We can very easily copy the digitalized works or transform due to the development of high technique and spread more swiftly and widely through internet. Nevertheless, we are in the face of various infringement, including the illegal copy of works. Hence we should protect the private right of the writer to some degree. But the copyright is not an absolute right, the legal protection of writer should not harm the public interest.
Accordingly it is necessary to maintain the proper balance between the right of writer and the public interest.
On the other hand the online game items could be expressed in cyber-space products to be no more than digital images consisting of digital codes, but the online game items could be independent like actual products to be likely to govern them exclusively and to be designed to prevent third party from making use of them illegally, so that they are much similar to actual products. Nevertheless, current laws have no regulation that online game items of cyber-space goods could be a property.
Therefore we should recognize online game item as an object of property crime.