The internet is a great source of information and entertainment brought into our homes within the last few years. It plays in important role to many individuals and businesses, but how many people actually know what/not to do on the Internet?

It isnt something I'm particularly hung up on or afraid of since im certain that nothing I do regarding the internet is illegal, but it is true that an increasing number of people are getting arrested for Internet crime. Not to have a debate about what is right or wrong here, but surely the rules are written down somewhere?

The thought of being able to go to court for simply something you type on a keyboard is something that most people, i think, don't consider that much.

Just a thought!

Vacant.

The internet don't not have any laws, basically because no one owns the internet. Everybody uses the internet with their own risk, in the sense to protect themselves from attacks or virus to destroy their computers.

So web surfers are responsible to equip themselves with tools and software for protection. Likewise, there is no international laws to arrest those people who create havoc or terrorist the internet.

However, companies and even individuals are able to sue these "internet terrorists" if they manage to track them down and bring them to court.

Apart from terrorising, individual themselves can so things that are illegal to their local government rules of internet. A good example is piracy. Many countries have laws and against people to download pirated materials. If the ISPs managed to track the person who sent the pirated materials, the sender might be as well be brought to court.
That is individual country law, not the internet law.

The internet does not have set laws because, simply, no one government could uphold them all over the world.

However, the internet is hosted on people's computers. Therefore when you mess with the internet, you're messing with someone's computer. And when you're messing with someone's computer... it is in a country. If this country has laws, you are going to be in trouble... if they catch you.

My personal advice is: you know what is wrong and what is right. Just don't mess with stuff.

Yep, the internet is like international watters. There are laws on how you use it.. but these depend on which country you live in.. China for instance bans a lot of websites. Each country has laws, some poorer countries may not have set laws... Normal Copyright laws apply the same on the internet though, for instance, downloading a album for free is copyright infringment, because, you paid no money. Just the same as getting a free album from a friend is illigal. All though on the internet this sharing of illigal copied elements is at a much larger scale.

Just ring up your government and ask them.. surprise them, heck, record the phone call, if you get a stupid person..

you - So, can I download music for free?
Them : Yes, I'm doing it riight now..
you - whatcha using?
Them : Kazaa Lite X3
you : x3?
them : ....crap....I shouldn't have told you I'm downloading illegal porn.
you : Porn?
Them : Oh.. crap.. I certainly souldn't have said it's illigal...porn.
-phone goes dead-

Then what about sites that have copyright software forum like vBulletin and IPB? They claimed to have fined ppl that uses unlicense software but how they actually catches them?

People can break many laws on the internet! Like iliegal downloading lol. (Probably the highest law broken on the internet. Harassment.(Mostly on chat) And even more others. So yes there is alot of laws in the internet.

yeah too many laws sometimes. i like the one on downloading though mage.lol

The internet definately has local law governing it. That is why flash artists who copyright their work were able to threaten to sue Eric Bauman from stealing Animator vs. Animation by telling hime he was breaching the DMCA

There are laws on the internet, but governed under which country the viewer is from. There is no unified rules or laws on how to use the internet, as one of the reasons is that it depends on which countries you are from. China is an obvious example, and another is the music downloading/piracy issues and how each country is handling it.