CYBERLAW ...... ((Mehran))

Hello my dear readers. I have been with you around 4 months with some interesting cyberlaw news .Now I wanna inform you that I have some exams in the following week . So I can't be with you in that moments .Then I 'll be back :)) .

Hello there, This is one of the latest news about cyberlaw . With the coming of 3G, the next wave of cyber attacks will be on the mobile phone, said cyber security expert Vijay Mukhi, at a seminar on the penultimate day of the Cyber Safety Week 2010 organised by the Mumbai Police.

He was addressing an audience comprising travel industry members on the issue of E-commerce security at the Police Gymkhana, Marine Drive.

“Mobile phones will be the next computer and with the coming of 3G on handsets that will ensure faster Internet speeds on the go, the number of frauds too will go up,” he said.

Some bad news for Google now, as it has been reported that a group of 10 countries have joined forces in their criticism of Google services such as Street View and Google Buzz.

The countries mentioned include Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom.

They are unhappy over the current amount of protection that these services offer consumers, and recently signed a letter, which Google has already acknowledged and called ‘ironic’.

There has always been a debate over Street View and whether it offers members of the public enough protection when Google capture images. As for Google Buzz, users are unhappy with certain aspects of the service which originally revealed personal details about users – although Google soon fixed this up.

To put it in simple term, defamation occurs when a person expresses words that may lower another person’s reputation in the eyes of the public.

There are two types of defamation in Malaysia: libel and slander.

Libel is when such words are expressed in a permanent form which is usually visible to the eye, like in a book, e-mail or picture.

Slander is when such words are expressed in a temporary form, usually when spoken or made by body movements.

Can a Blog Be Sued for Defamation; Isn't It All Free Speech?
This is a knotty issue, but a short answer would be, generally, that a blog owner whose blog has published obnoxious materials can be held harmless while a blogger using the site can be liable. The Communications Decency Act of 1996 is a protector of blog owners. It states, in section 230, that it "precludes courts from entertaining claims that would place a computer service provider in a publisher's role." As to how the court sees blogs, in general, overall, the US Supreme Court has ruled that blogs are similar to news groups, saying "in the context of defamation law, the rights of the institutional media are no greater and no less than those enjoyed by other individuals and organizations engaged in the same activities."

For bloggers, all Defamation legal rules apply to their posts. But there are many complications in applying them. First, many people who post online comments, and probably those tending to make the most inflammatory and false statements, will do so anonymously, for obvious reasons. So the first threshold is identifying the blogger making Defamatory claims. Several things make this difficult, as well. Since the blogger probably will not identify themselves when the issue comes to light, there needs to be a legal process that allows identification. They can be traced by high-tech means, but a court must agree via summary judgment that all the elements of Defamation have been met. This technology does have some limits, as well, as it can be stymied through use of "Proxies," which mask the true origin of the blogger. Also, the website owner may not cooperate in the search, as well.

A recent case showed how powerful Defamation laws, applied online, can be. In November 2006, a Florida woman, Sue Scheff, was awarded $11.3 million in damages in Broward County Circuit Court, in one of the biggest awards ever tolled. The suit was filed for Internet defamation, and the jury found a Louisiana woman had posted caustic messages against the Scheff and her company, claiming she was a "con artist" and "fraud". The jury found the charges were completely false, so the Louisiana woman had no defense. Interestingly, Scheff's attorney had offered to settle the case for $35,000 before it went before the jury.

How do you feel about a United States President having the power to possibly shutdown portions of the Internet?
The US Senate committee has approved legislation which effectively gives President Obama the power to shut off parts of the internet when there is a national emergency.The legislation is called Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act and will allow the President in times of national emergency to implement response plans for protecting the infrastructure of the web, as well as the electrical grid and telcom networks.