New laws for the online community

1999-05-14

An interesting element of the Richard Tomlinson situation is the perception that the internet is somehow beyond the law. There are two factors to this. The first is that the internet, being global, spans international boundaries and hence leaves room for activities which are illegal in some countries to be conducted remotely from other countries. This is not dissimilar to the current situation in online gambling. The second factor is that the new facilities provided by the internet are causing new situations which, though immoral or antisocial in theory, do not have any corresponding legislation to make them illegal in practice.

The one thing we can say is that this situation will change. Cases have already been successfully brought under the terms of the “long arm” laws being implemented in some US states, particularly against copyright restrictions. The UK government, amongst others it is assumed, has noted the need for international legislation to restrict the misuse of the internet. Of course, the situation is still in a state of flux but things are firming up – it is now possible to see, at least, that global agreements are required to enable some national laws to be enacted across international boundaries.

Without taking a view on Richard Tomlinson’s position, it is possible to see that he has been exploiting weaknesses in international law exposed by the internet. His case is high profile – there are plenty of others. The sooner these weaknesses have been dealt with, taking into account the international conventions to protect the individual and with the necessary agreement of the international community as a whole, the better.

(First published 14 May 1999)