People are currently serving jail terms in the UK and the US because they infiltrated other people’s computers that they weren’t told to. Similarly in Nigeria, some people’s liberty is currently being restricted because they use the computer to make phony deals online. In Microsoft vs. Alexander Pononsov, a Russian court passed a verdict of guilty on a rural school teacher that unknowingly used pirated Microsoft operating systems. The common denominator in the above scenarios is that the law took over, reduced all the computing technicalities into the desiccated vernacular of its trade and made prosecutions. But how effective and comprehensive are computers laws in Nigeria and the developing world at large as compared to the advance countries. Remember we are all players in the same cyberspace, and hence faces the same threats.
The computer law in Nigeria is way underdeveloped and hence do not meet with the contemporary requirements of the modern information and technology age. We lack the technical resources, expertise as well as the legal framework to tackle cyber crimes and computer crimes at large. The business environment in any country is greatly strengthened by the security environment: therefore, serious Techno-legal ICT training is required for judges, lawyers, law students, law professors and corporate executives in Nigeria. A wise litigator now in Nigeria will be looking forth to writing his MCP- Microsoft Certified Professional which will be a stepping stone to acquiring Techno-Legal trainings. An MCP attached to his name a lone is an intimidation to other litigator.
Now that the infrastructures in any country can no longer function without computers and networks, a well regulated computing industry instills a lot of confidence in computer related transactions and help guard against IT risk complexities. When the internet was first introduced , it was like a state of nature where internet browsers have unlimited freedom but gradually laws came up that limited what people can and cannot do on the computer. I often participate in a hackers forum on a website floated from Germany, today legislative laws came up in Germany that prohibited that site from being floated from Germany.
Computer law is mostly an eclectic amalgamation of concepts from existing law, which are applied to the relatively new technologies of computer hardware and software, e-mail, and the Internet. (Google tech Dictionary). However, there are several reasons why it is convenient to have a separate classification for computer law:
1. Solving legal problems that arose from the use of computers often requires some legal principles that are rarely encountered in the practice of law. For example:
A. Disputes about e-mail and web pages on the Internet extend across state lines, and may even extend across national borders. For example, there are technical issues in personal jurisdiction and which state's law should be applied to the resolution of the dispute. To solve these legal problems, one must understand principles of an abstruse area of law, called Conflicts of Law. Instead of relatively firm rules with predictable results, as in most other areas of law, conflicts analysis can be characterized as choosing from a menu of possibilities.
B. Information stored on computers (e.g., software, data, trade secrets, confidential personal information) is generally much more valuable than the computer hardware. In order to protect this information, many of the concepts in the practice of computer law involve the specialized area of Intellectual Property Law, which includes copyrights, trademarks, and patents. Take the US for instance, in order to practice before the U.S. Patent Office; an attorney must have at least a bachelor's degree in some area of science or engineering, a requirement that excludes nearly all attorneys.
2. Traditional concepts in law are being expanded by events in the area of computer law. For example:
A. Computer software is legally considered a "good". Unlike other goods, the "purchaser" only owns the floppy diskette or compact disk that contains the software, plus a license to use the software. The Uniform Commercial Code was amended by including Article 2B in the US patent law to cover licensing of computer software.
B. Computer databases that contain erroneous information (e.g., false credit reports) can be harmful to people, which may give rise to a new class of torts, called infotorts
C. Hackers who use a modem to enter a computer without authorization and either (1) use its services or (2) alter records are committing a crime similar to burglary, but the traditional notion of burglary requires the criminal personally to enter the victim's premises, which is not satisfied in the case of entry via data to/from a modem. Therefore, new laws were enacted to define computer crimes (Personally, I think it would have been preferable to change the definitions in existing concepts, instead of create new concepts, but no one would accuse the legal profession of honoring simplicity and economy.)
D. Authentication of evidence contained in files on a computer presents some new problems, because of the ease with which data in the file can be altered, and also because it is easy to alter the operating system's date and time stamp in the directory.
E. Searches of computer databases provide access to information that was difficult to locate in the pre-computer age, which makes computer databases a major new threat to privacy of individuals.
The Internet has been revolutionary in giving anyone with a website the equivalent of a printing press or television transmitter: now anyone can broadcast their information or opinion to the whole world, without first going through formal review by a publisher. Many governments have reacted to the Internet with new censorship of both websites and readers' access to the Internet. Furthermore, there has been widespread copyright infringement by people who post material at their website that was copied from other websites, or copied from books, without written permission of the copyright owner.
Law reacts slowly to new technology, With the exception of the telephone and typewriter, the technological revolution of the past century has left the law untouched. Law has dealt at arm's length with technology, making new rules to cover air travel, genetic engineering, and the like, while the lawyers who do the work carry on with paper and pencil – until the advent of the computer.
The case in the developing world need a deep focus, perhaps I might be wrong , maybe a deeper focus. Judging computer related crimes need players with adequate computer knowledge on the technical side. In Nigeria, law enforcement agent have little or no computer education to combat rising computer related crimes. We need a separate court for trials regarding computer related crimes and judges that are conversant with bits and bytes, like the juvenile court system in which lots of proceedings in the normal court system doesn’t apply there. Surprisingly, the issue of laws regarding computer crimes have not had adequate attention even in developed world. This is as a result of different interpretation of what constitutes a computer device and computer crimes at large. For instance the newly elected state law in West Virginia regarding computer crimes states that :
Any person who, knowingly and willfully, directly or indirectly accesses or causes to be accessed any computer, computer services r computer network for the purpose of (1) executing any scheme or artifice o defraud or (2) obtaining money, property or services by means of fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars or imprisoned in the penitentiary for not more than ten years or both.
In the Alabama Computer Crime Act, the same issue has a different punishment and interpretation. Also, issues’ regarding definitions as regards to what is a data, computer network, computer programs etc have been interpreted in different ways under different State Laws in the US. This variance stress from Texas Statutes and Codes Annotated,, the State of Wisconsin Statutes, Washington Criminal Code in the revised code of Washington Annotated, and the Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated under Organized Crime and Fraud and so on.
Computer users and law enforcement agents in Nigeria need serious awareness by concerned agencies as regards to what constitute a computer crime locally and in the cyberworld. Initially, I stressed on the technical abilities of all players involved in pinning a computer crime, this is because technical issues are paramount in both the investigation and prosecution phase of the crime . I was in a cybercafé in Ikeja, then EFCC officials stormed into the café and instructed every body to pause, they then move round to check what people are doing. I laughed because this is highly unskillful and untechnical way of tackling a computer incident on the side of the law enforcement agents. People like us whether you shutdown your PC , we can still backtrack what you were doing . If you like unplug the power cord so that the system suddenly dies off I can still trace back your activities on the system. In fact format your hard drive I can still retrieve data from it.
