Guide to Finding Cyber Lawyer

What is a cyber lawyer?

Cyber is a neologism from the 1980s which abbreviates “cybernetics,” meaning the science of communication, particularly the science of communicating with machines. Today, the term cyber lawyer refers to a lawyer who specializes in laws concerning computers and the internet. This is a burgeoning field on the fault line of nearly a dozen legal planes, including advertising law, commercial law, privacy law, and intellectual property law, which makes finding an expert cyber lawyer a difficult task but almost certainly beneficial.

Cyber Lawyers as Criminal Lawyers

Cyber law can be, first and foremost, a matter of criminal law, and many violations of it can be punished with prison time. More and more government prosecutors across the country are familiarizing themselves with computer law and becoming cyber lawyers themselves. These are some of the cases which a cyber lawyer might try in a criminal court:

• Identity Theft—Identity thieves pose as another person for monetary gain, often taking out credit cards and the exposing the person whose identity has been stolen to large debts. Identity thieves target their victim’s social security number and other personal information, stealing it through hacking into their victim’s computer or setting up a fraudulent website that asks for personal information.

• Hacking—Hackers remotely break into the computer terminals and record systems that belong to another party. This can be done for some monetary gain—such as stealing personal identification information—or merely as property destruction. Occasionally hacking is done as a form of political protest in a process called “hacktivism.” A notable example is when Egyptian government websites were attacked during the 2011 Egyptian protests. Hackers may violate both state and federal laws.

• Spyware—This software helps the user to illicitly collect data from an unknowing computer user whose hardware has been infected with it. It usually facilitates identity theft.

• Spam—Spam can be defined as mass-scale illicit distribution of marketing materials. It is a form of solicitation, the criminal act of presenting marketing information without some expressed consent to do so. Email spam has proven the most popular form of spam over the past decade, thoughts its prominence has somewhat subsided due to the rise of email spam filters. Email spam can also violate privacy laws, since email addresses are often gotten through illicit means. Another form of spam is network spam, in which a marketer or marketing program poses as a human being in order to sell a good or service.

• Sex Crime—Cyber lawyers may prosecute or defend individuals accused of predatory sexual activities online. These often involve minors, such as the possession or the distribution of child pornography or the solicitation of minors over social networking sites.

Cyber Lawyers and Tort Law

Most cyber lawyers should also be well-versed in tort law, since many concerns in the domain of cyber law are often well within the realm of civil courts. Given the amount of money and effort businesses are putting into cyber expansion, it is not at all surprising that this excitement has also spilled over into the court. As with their criminal law counterparts, cyber lawyers engaged in tort law can try a number of diverse cases. These are just a few:

• Cybersquatting—When a person purchases a website domain in the hopes of benefitting from another’s trademark, they are participating in a legally sanctionable action called cybersquatting. Some famous cases have involved music artists Jethro Tull and Madonna, who at one time did not own websites bearing their own name, though perhaps the most notable instance is the action pursued by The White House against Whitehouse.com and Whitehouse.org. The Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act allows a trademark owner to file a suit against an alleged cybersquatter in federal court. If the trademark owner instead hopes only to have their intellectual property returned, a complaint can be lodged with the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers.

• Chargebacks—Chargebacks involve a consumer ordering a product online, receiving the product and being billed as promised, and then refusing to pay the bill. Chargebacks are enforced by the back of the consumer, and the only way an internet business can hope to receive back either its product, which is still held by the consumer, or the revenue it initially raised is via litigation and an experienced cyber lawyer.

• Copyright and intellectual property law—The internet is a hotbed of copyright violation—from the most glaring examples, such as torrenting and file sharing services through which users can illegally download films and music, to less obvious instances, such as when a website uses another site’s page design or a well-known blog writer plagiarizes from an obscure writer. Additionally, since the development of websites is such a difficult process due to the challenging technology involved and the large amounts of money that can be at stake, complaints are often issued regarding to whom an internet site belongs or to what degree a website is owed to another’s ideas and work. (Two such complaints were made famous in the film The Social Network.) Cyber lawyers are necessary employees for such disputes.

Cyber Lawyers as Draftsmen

A cyber lawyer can also come in handy for drafting the importing legal contracts which internet commerce necessitates. Some examples of these contracts are:

• Terms and Conditions—Found on every website, these tell users how they are meant to interact with a site. Though basic guidelines exist, terms and conditions should be fine-tuned for a specific business’s needs.

• Acceptable Use Policies—Found on sites which provide specific services, such as file sharing or social networking, this policies tell users how they are meant, or not meant, to use the site’s services.

• Privacy Policies—With these contracts, websites make clear what user’s privacy expectations should be.

• Refund Policies—These stipulate when a good purchased on an internet site can be returned for compensation.

• Earnings Disclaimers—For sites which sell products that can be used to raise money, these are necessary legal documents dispelling any user’s expected earnings.