Apropos of my last post, I just tried to post a comment in response to Orin Kerr's Case for a new Computer Crime Law and New Doctrines on Balkinization, but they will not let you post unless you have a Blogger account and many people may not want a Blogger account. So I'm cross- posting it here, and trackbacking to Orin's notice on Volokh Conspiracy that he is posting at Balkinization and ask that if you want to comment, and have a Blogger account, you do so there (pursuant to responses I got to my post about cross-linking), but if you don't want a blogger account you can comment here. whew! Here's the comment:
I’m not sure what you are trying to accomplish here. New technologies like the Internet are certainly going to have a huge impact on criminal law because (1) new technologies redefine what our expectation of privacy is; and (2) new technologies both hold stuff people want to steal and are a means for accomplishing that task. I think this makes the application of criminal law to the Internet a particularly interesting area of study and the question of whether new laws are needed a question in real need of an answer. But the Internet is going to have an equally big impact on other areas of the law like contracts if we move to a world where most Ks are click or browser- wrap, or intellectual property, where every use of a work requires that a copy be made, or first amendment if everyone can now be a speaker.
Cybercrime is equally as interesting as many other cyber-related classes that pepper today’s law curriculum. It offers both an opportunities to learn a substantive area and to develop critical thinking skills along the lines of a typical criminal law class (what should we punish?); criminal procedure class (should there be checks on power to stop crime and how shall they be imposed?); and, say, torts class (what duties should be placed on a server operator to prevent unauthorized access?) or property class (if you do not password protect your wireless is it open for public use?).
I think there should be new laws to address online crime, but I do not see it as being so unique that it either merits a “conceptual case” for teaching and scholarship on the issue or requires any more justification than classes on virtual worlds, technologies and politics of control, cultural evolution and memetics, the public and the private in high technology, information privacy law, securities law and the internet, etc.