NATION STATE LAWS AND INTERNET

Nation State Laws and Internet



Nation State Laws and Internet

The Internet is a worldwide system of computer networks that use standardized, compatible communications procedures to transfer data. These procedures include physical communications protocols and data structures, such as those for pages on the World Wide Web and for electronic mail. The Internet facilitates the transfer of all kinds of data, including personal letters, photographs, sound recordings, motion pictures, and computer software. The worldwide nature of the Internet creates serious problems of conflict of national laws concerning matters such as jurisdiction, free speech, privacy, and intellectual property. Legal problems abound because most e-mail is unwanted and usually fraudulent advertising and much, perhaps most, network traffic consists of pornography distribution and copyright piracy. There is also a continuing tension between the Internet service providers (ISPs), who seek immunity from liability for the content of the information they transmit, and those harmed by these transmissions, who wish to make the ISPs police their users' conduct.

Internet and Nation State Laws is essential to making the Internet work. Most of this Internet and Nation State Laws is voluntary, done by the World Wide Web Consortium. There has been considerable government intervention in the area of assignment of Internet domain names. The U.S. government, by contract, has given control over key aspects of this function to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as the registry for the popular .com domain. Competing registrars provide technical services in registering domain names. The degree of government involvement in the management of national domains (for example, .de for Germany, .jp for Japan) varies from country to country.

The issue of jurisdiction over Internet activities presents complex problems. A Web site can be hosted on a computer anywhere in the world and be accessible to Internet users anywhere in the world. E-mail can be sent from any Internet user to any Internet users. In the course of transmission, data sent over the Internet passes through computers owned by many different organizations. When does a country (or a state in a federal system) have jurisdiction over legal issues arising from the data transfer? Most litigation over this question has occurred in the United States in cases in which a business located in one state has been sued in another state. Courts in the United States have looked to the contacts that the defendant has with the state where the suit was brought (forum). One may bring any type of action against defendants with extensive contacts with the forum state. Where contacts are more limited, three criteria must be met: (1) the action must arise out of the contacts, (2) the defendant must have purposely availed itself of the privilege of conducting activities in the forum state, and (3) jurisdiction must be fair and just. Standards for jurisdiction will vary from country to country, but one may expect that a company that actively uses the Internet to sell goods or services in a particular country will be subject to ...