Ref:Lawrence Lessig, Code and other Laws of cyberspace, 1999..
Real world is the one which has existence and where everything is visible through our eyes. Everything can be felt here. Everything has physical existence here.
Ref: & cyber power by Tim Jordan, 1999.)
2. Cyber space and real space – differences and similarities
The most important distinguishing factor among cyber space and real space is physical property. In cyber world everything could be considered as virtual, without any real physical form and dimensions like real world. Cyber space is detached from space-time reference system.
There is no life in the cyber world characters, actually those characters are real world living people with a digital name and electronic mail address. Cyber world is made up by real world people for their convenience and development. It is a technology first which being so different, got this identification as cyber space.
In real space almost everything is related in terms of real time and physical distance, whereas in cyber space there are no boundaries. Hence we can not say how much space any interaction has taken but we can consider time concept. Anybody could be present in the cyber space from any part of the real world and people from different geographical areas could interact in a same platform, at real time but no space.
( see appendix )
In cyber space nothing is relative like real space and everything meaningful is always measured in absolute terms. In cyber world most of the things occur independently and are mostly non-negative transmission rates.
Ref: www.sciscoop.com/story/2003/8/6/14656/01463 - 35k accessed on 13th march 2004.
2.1. Relationship
The real life time relationship is not possible in cyberspace. In the real space we see there are two types of relationship viz one that come with the birth and the other that is acquired. But on the cyberspace it is not like this. We can see people saying this is my dad or step dad but nobody says he is my internet dad but we hear saying that he is my internet lover
2.2.Communication channel
Communication is very fast in the cyberspace compared to that in the real space. In real space we use all the mode of communication, oral/verbal, written and the symbolic so does the cyberspace. But the only difference the communication in cyberspace is much faster than that in the real space. It is less expensive as well.
2.3.Behavioural pattern
People behave differently on the internet and that is why there is a concept of Netiquette, which certainly means adequate on the internet. This property of cyber world makes it different from real world but does not make it independent. Example of different behaviour is in real world nobody says ‘lol’ when they want to ‘laugh out loud’.
2.4Crime
We have crime in the internet also and in the real world also- common feature but as there is nothing physical in the cyber world, there couldn’t be any physical harm or crime on the internet. Have you ever heard about murder on the internet? Again this doesn’t mean crime on the cyber world doesn’t affect real world. Real people are involved in doing crime, and real situations which made person to commit crime online. Any crime committed in cyber space has real and tangible effect in physical world.
2.5Jurisdiction – jurisdiction is one of the biggest problem faced now, because there is no jurisdiction in cyber world it is really hard to enforce law. One good example is-
Macquarie Bank Ltd v Berg( 1999) NSWSC 526 (2 June 1999). See appendix.
Few examples of crime could be-
Issues of security – Hacking and Cracking
Issues of Privacy - Spamming, Flaming, Laming, Phreakin and cyber stalking.
Security is the biggest issue, internet being an ocean of information it is so easy to tamper or access somebody else’s important information. Electronic communications technologies also lower the barriers to harassment and threats; a person does not need to physically confront the victim. Drawback is there is no ‘universally followed law’ for cyber world which makes it easy to evade crime on the internet.
3.Importance of cyberspace.
Today cyber world has a big importance in running day to day activities. One can travel the world meeting people, yet remain forever seated in our home. Virtually meeting someone in Australia from London can be easier than virtually meeting someone in other part of London depending on the speed of the networks. One may not go there physically but he/she certainly have feelings of the presence there. Virtual societies mean the reinvention of all that is familiar. A virtual discussion may allow all to speak and all to be heard at once. Each participant types their contributions and places them in centrally held discussion, accessible to all other participants. In this way all contributions are always available, no one can be silenced because their voice is the quietest and no one can be heard with more effect simply because they are more aggressive. Alchemists would look on one wistfully, as one turns plastic cards into gold at every automated teller through the magic of computer communication. One of the most striking aspects of cyberspace is that it “provides an easy and inexpensive way for a speaker to reach a large audience, potentially of millions”. This characteristics sharply contrasts with the traditional forms of mass communications such as T.V., radio, newspapers, and magazines, which require significant start-up and operating costs and therefore tend to concentrate communications power in a limited number of hands. Anyone with access to the internet however can communicate and interact with a vast and rapidly expanding cyberspace audience, which is very difficult in real world. The internet enables any person with a phone line to “ become a pamphleteer” or “ a town crier with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox”. Indeed the Internet is “a unique and wholly new medium of worldwide human communication that contains content “ as diverse as human thought.”
()
Today to see anyone in the real world we need to spend a lot of time and a lot of money as well but because of cyber world this problem has been sorted out as it takes no time to see anyone we wish via net as long as we are connected to it.” Anyone with a minimum of equipment and knowledge can not only read what is already there, take copies of information already there and participate in communal activities already there, but can also build there. Anyone can open a bulletin board, create an alternative world , post their thoughts of just exist as a net.luker which is impossible in the real world. This shows the advancement of the cyber world over the real world.
This cyber world has become so important today that we cannot live without it although we try in busy places like London ( see appendix 2) . This is not only where the cyber world is limited. Today most of the business transactions are done on net 24 hours a day and 365 days a year virtually which don’t need anyone to do that.
Cyberspace is a four dimensional representation of the sum of human knowledge which is experienced as a virtual reality and is used by moving through it. It is a vision of information organisation, one all the more seductive for only being described allusively in his novels where most action takes in the real world (Bukatman, 1993a: 146-54). Politically cyberspace is not conceived as free and equally open, rather it is an economically divided space.
In the real world the walls of brick and glass create division but in cyberspace walls of data divide a hardwired, of postorganic, humanity into economic protagonists, humanity into economic protagonists’ (thomas:1991:44).
The term cyber reach can be used to describe cyberspace’s ability to extend the reach of an individuals voice. Cyber-reach makes the internet unique , accounts for much of its explosive growth and popularity, and perhaps holds the promise of a true and meaningful “ free trade in idea” that justice Holmes imagined eighty years ago. Thus cyber- reach makes cyberspace “ different” enough from physical space that we should consider how this difference may justify modifying existing legal rules that were designed without cyberspace in mind. The difference is so great that cyberspace cannot be governed by traditional legal machinery rather assuming cyberspace can be regulated and shaped in traditional ways.
www.lawandeverythingelse.com/id61.htm - 16k
Cyberspace is constructed out of information ; it is an informational space. This is true at two levels. First , the exchange of information in the form of software code largely creates cyberspace. Second , virtual lives are created through the exchange of information by avatars, both information about objects and about how to use cyberspace.
4.The evolving nature of cyberspace.
Much of the earliest and most influential writing about cyberspace was from a decidedly libertarian perspective, written by people excited by the early pre- commercial Internet’s potential create virtual communities and customs which seemed to have very little relation to the nation state or the practice of the “real space” James Boyle (2001)has explained this approach as- “It was not so much that nation states wouldn’t want to regulate the Net, it was that they would be unable to do so, forestalled by the technology of the medium, the geographical distribution of its users and the nature of its content”. This tripartite immunity came to be a kind of Internet Holy trinity, faith in which was a condition of acceptance into the community. A quick comment on each of the under described statement will indicate why cyberspace is developing in the contrary direction.
http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/
On the internet noone knows that you are a dog: The famous cartoon of New York encapsulated the belief that cyberspace was a real, of anonymity and pseudonymity, where you could browse the web in privacy, or adopt a pseudonym ( and new sex or history if you like)for interactions with other. It has been noted that while chatting to others online girls pretend to be guys to have chat with the other guys where as guys pretend to be girls. The defame condition of our interactions and communications in real space is anonymity whereas the default condition of Internet communication is some form of identification.
http://marylaine.com/myword/dog.html
5. Identity In the cyberspace.
Cyberspace is the land of empowerment, of reinventing identities out of thought. Online identity needs to be broken down into two components to be fully explored. First there are a number of resources through which online identities are created. Second, there is an elastic connection between offline and online identity. And people negotiate the potential identity, fluidity of online life with these two resources. A numbers of indicators appear online through which identity is constructed. Their common characteristic is that they do not immediately create clear forms of identity that are identical to offline identity. Rather they create a number of resources through which offline identity can be imported of recreated but which do not mandate that offline and online remain the same. These components divide broadly into two types, identifiers and style. Identifiers are the names, addresses, self-descriptions and more that designate contributions to cyberspace. They all in some way allow the message we send, the software we contribute, the emotions of ideas that we express, to be related to our avatar
But in the real world this is very simple. We can see people and recognise them according to the physical apperance.The problem with the cyber world identity is that someone knowing the characters and password of others may cheat to other easily. This is how a real world is different form the cyber world.
http://www.thing.net/eyebeam/msg00235.html
6.Cyber World in day to day life
Today cyber world has effected more that the real world in our daily life. Almost 90% of the citizens of the developed country use the internet for information, transactions and the entertainment. Entertainment on the internet is cheaper and easy than that in the real world. Almost all students use the internet for study. They cannot study without the internet. Almost all of their researches are done on the net. They don’t need any teacher for that. So cyber world work for them as their teacher. Cyberspace has created so much influence on the people that they even don’t want to go to buy stuff from the market. They just view it online and order giving their details and they get their things delivered at their home in no time. This is only because today even the smaller retails have their websites and they advertise through their websites (see appendix ). Although the real world was created billions of years ago but cyber world emerged from the mid 1960 the cyber world has become more advanced that the real world. Not only this much to buy things offline I need to go between 9-6 but in the cyber world it can be done 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. This shows the advancement of the cyber world over the real world. You can send message to one you want in a minute which cannot be done through the traditional method of correspondence.
Ref: Daily scenarios on banking.
7.Conclusion
Cyber space is certainly not independent of real space; neither real space is independent of cyber space. Cyber space and real space both affects each other, there are enough significance differences which makes them very different from each other and that is what makes cyber world a ‘world’, differences does not make them independent.
In cyber-space, almost all actions happen in real time, as in real life. In many cases, effects and consequences of actions are quicker than in the real world. The suggestion would be to have a common law and common ‘law enforcement body’ to solve the problem of increasing cyber crime, same way as they have one body to give domain names, there is a possibility to enforce law more efficiently and properly and to keep cyber criminals under threat. Because there are no governing body for the cyber law that is the current need. In this cyber world one can easily commit a crime due to weak jurisdiction. So there must be a governing body for this world because this is the fastest growing world today. Because identity is a problem in cyber space some security measures should be approached. Similarly privacy is another issue. There is a less chance of having privacy in cyberspace so one should think about that as well.
In this way we can conclude that the cyber world is independent from the real world. There are a lot of things good on it whereas a lot of bad things as well but it all depends on its use like the pornography use may be a problem to the kids but it is doing the highest business today online. Cyber laws should be reviewed and implemented throughout the world as it has no boundry.And everyone should be serious about the development of this world because it is assisting us in many ways.
8.Reference.
Books-
-
David Bainbridge, Introduction to computer law, fourth edition, Longman, 2000, Essex England.
- Lawrence Lessig, Code and other laws of cyber space, Basic books, 1999, New York.
Websites-
- The internet Law Journal –
- A report on cyber crime and money laundering
- Computer crime and intellectual property section
http://.
Bibliography:
Books-
-
David Bainbridge, Introduction to computer law, fourth edition, Longman, 2000, Essex England.
-
Dr. Charles Chatterjee, Methods of research in law, second edition, Old bailey press, 2000, London.
-
Jonathan Bick, 101 things you need to know about internet law. Three rivers press, 2000, New York.
- Lawrence Lessig, Code and other laws of cyber space, Basic books, 1999, New York.
- J. Dianne Brinson, Internet law and Business Handbook, 2000, US.
- Jonathan Rosenoer, Cyber law , 1997, US
- Ferrera, Lichtenstein, Reder, August, Schiano, Cyber law, 2001, Us.
Websites-
- The internet Law Journal –
- A report on cyber crime and money laundering
- Computer crime and intellectual property section
http://.
Appendix
1.Avatar: Avatar is a stable identity that someone using Barlovian cyberspace has created. The existence of avatar means someone has used some of cyberspace’s resources in ways that result in other avatars recognising a stable online personality.
2.ATM We take money from the cash machines. We can easily take from any cash machines throughout the world but have we ever tried to know how does it works. In a minute we can get information about the balance on our account, swipe our card wherever we want and take money whatever we want depending on the balance just on using our personal pin number or the password. This is not possible in the real world. Say we need money at the time the bank is closed which may be Sunday, bank holiday or any other item.what can we do when we have no cash machine which is nothing but the use of cyber techniques. We use the automated service wherever needed. Have we ever thought how does it works? It is nothing but the development of cyber techniques. Even we require loans we ask to the bank and they use nothing but only the credit scoring system on the net which shows whether we are eligible for the loan or not and then we are given the decision by the cyber world and not the real world whether to give the loan to us or not.
ATM machine can issue money to anyone using a plastic card and just inserting his correct password and pin number which is not possible in the real world. It is only because the information in the cyber world goes faster that the velocity of electric current. If one uses online banking facility then he don’t need to go out of his home. He can just seat in front of the screen as do everything he wants
3 Online shopping:.Say I want to buy a particular product. Now even if I just go to oxford circus to get that I need to invest travel fare, time and then I need to go at least to 10 shops selling that product just to select best one and compare the prices. But if I go to online to buy that then there is no waste of travel fare , time and I can view 1000 of brand at the same time and compare their quality and prices and finally order them. See how easy it has been to do the things in the cyber world.
4. Cases showing difference :First the real world is real whereas the cyber world id the virtual because the real world has the physical identity but the virtual world has no physical existence. The things can’t occur, don’t occur in the real world all the times but these occur in the cyber world 24 hours a day and 365 days a year as long as there is internet connection. To become powerful in the real world one should be very strong physically but in the cyber world u just need mind. If you are intelligent then u can rotate the whole world with the finger. Like during the world war Germany was powerful because of the Hitler but today America I powerful because of their cyber world development. To go from one country to other we need to have passport and visa because they need identity but this is not the requirement of the cyber world. You don’t need any kind of visa and passport because you are the citizen of this world so u should be allowed to visit any part of the world. This is what cyber world believe in. If we are to send a letter to our family from any part of world then we need to put stamp on it and then on posting it may take about 7-10 days by the receiver to receive it but this is not a problem in the cyber world. We can write email in a minute and it will be received simultaneously. If we are to talk with our family members then phone calls in the real world may be very expensive but in the cyber world the instant messaging service and the chatting has solved this problem. As we said online banking in the cyber world is more powerful than the banking in the real world which saves time for standing in queue as well as occurs all the time. Anything can be bought from sitting at home without travelling any real distance. Any part of the world can be visited and any information from any part of the world can be received without travelling a distance and without buying a newspaper. Cyber world provides more people with more access to more information, than any other medium. Also on the optimistic side is the promise of “-democracy” –that through the internet we can participate in public policy construction in ways never before imagined. We can have direct discussions about policy questions , with policy makers, and even vote from our keyboards which is not possible in the real world anyway. At the same time , we know that because there is no regulations on the web content it is often impossible to tell what information is good and what is bad. In the real world the information is limited. It might be limited to a book or some books. So to collect information about any thing we need to buy some books or articles which might be expensive but in the cyber world the information is quite plentiful. As soon as we hit the search tool we get so much information that we cannot decide where to go at the moment. There are some problems with the cyber world as well. Like receiving of junk mails which is not a problem in the real world.
5.The strangeness of cyberspace is – where people whose bodies are separated by millions of miles can meet – is made familiar by describing it as a street traversed by a monorail and in which people walk using avatars that represent them to each other.” Stephenson’s metaverse, like Gibson’s cyberspace, describes a world of information people enter and often work in, but which is outside the rules of the world we normally exist in. The essential, underlying characteristic of cyberpunk’s cyberspace is the sense that this is a place in which people live and have access to knowledge, but which is also somehow a non-physical place. It is somewhere that bodies do not go, though we need our bodies to get there, and where the physical rules of normal space are transgressed. The loss of physical body , even it is replaced with a computer- generated avatar combined with an intimate relationship with knowledge, creates the belief that what it means to be human is different in cyberspace and that this realisation changes what is mean to be human anywhere.
6. Macquarie Bank Ltd v Berg (1999) NSWSC 526 (2 June 1999)
Mr Berg, a former employee of Macquaire Bank was living in the United States of America. Using a web site he defamed both Macquaire Bank and Mr Downe (another employee). Justice Simpson in the New South Wales Supreme Court refused to grant an order restraining publication of defamatory material on the internet. Her Honour considered that such an order may be beyond the capability of an Australian court.
4. Survey Report
A small survey was conducted at my work in Williamhill and sainsbury’s on the topic of dependency between ‘Cyberspace’ and ‘Real space’. The target audience were employees from various countries currently studying in various universities. The survey was quite nice in a sense it helped to get the feelings and views of the people from different generation and different location regarding the cyberspace.
The overview of the survey is outlined as follows:
- It was found that people felt more secure in real space while compared to cyberspace;
- Most of the people surveyed felt that both cyberspace and real space was partially dependant;
- Also, the audience agree with the fact that Internet has taken our lives one step further while the progress in real space would have been much slower;
- Most of the audience felt that it would be easier for them to get away after doing a crime on Internet rather than in real life;
- Some people were there who hesitate to use their card details on the internet thinking that third party might have excess.