The department of Rhetoric and Communication hosted a lecture by Janet Sternberg, Kirkland class of 1975, titled "Legal Dilemmas in Transnational Cyberspace." Sternberg is assistant professor in the department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University.
Sternberg began her lecture by admitting that, while a student at Kirkland, she never imagined returning to Hamilton to speak as an academic. Similarly, at Kirkland, Sternberg had little conception of cyberspace, because she had never seen a computer until after she graduated.
As cyberspace grew in the 1980s and exploded in the 1990s, discussion grew regarding what could be considered criminal activity versus simple online troublemaking. Sternberg explained that "[few] national boundaries matter online," and therefore the questions regarding the Internet include: Is this criminal activity or not? and Who has jurisdiction in a global internet community?
Sternberg outlined two types of problems that occur when examining legal problems online; the first is what she called "definition schizophrenia." This examines what should be considered criminal Internet activity, and how to differentiate between serious crimes online and simple mischief. Explaining that a very thin line exists between "felony versus tomfoolery," the punishments awarded seem to be "inconsistent and uncertain." Since 1990, this debate has increased as hacker activity increases.
Sternberg looked at two cases of viruses that occurred in 1999 the Melissa Virus from the United States and the Chernobyl Virus from Taiwan. Although the Melissa Virus did not damage any hard drives harshly sentenced in the United States. On the other hand, the creator of the far more destructive Chernobyl Virus was not prosecuted at all. Although the Melissa versus Chernobyl debate is just one example, Sternberg said that criminal standards have been inconsistent from nation to nation.
The next bewildering problem facing the Internet is what Sternberg called the "jurisdiction circus." The question posed by the jurisdiction circus is: once an offense becomes criminal, who is responsible for dealing with the criminal? Unfortunately, Sternberg explained, there are no defined boundaries or jurisdiction on the Internet, as cyberspace crosses both local and national boundaries. It is an unavoidable fact that "different places have different standards," Sternberg explained, and no one place can decide what the moral or ethical standards will be for the entire Internet. Deciding jurisdiction is tricky in both international and domestic Internet crime cases.
According to Sternberg, the only answer to these problems is to develop and implement local laws concerning cyberspace and enforce these laws locally. "Cultural relativity" must be taken into account, according to Sternberg, in order for cyberspace crime outcomes to be tried fairly. Problems will continue until local strategies are implemented.
-- by Emily Lemanczyk '05
