Cyberspace and the Law

What legal recourse do you have if someone has read your private e-mail without your consent? Who owns the copyright to the message you just posted on a bulletin board? Can you get into trouble for downloading a sexually explicit file? These are among the many questions that the authors, both practicing attorneys, address in Cyberspace and the Law. Without resorting to confusing legalese, they present a clear and concise analysis of legal issues in the anarchic world of cyberspace for members of the on-line world who have little or no legal background. The introduction provides a quick tour of cyberspace (on-line services, bulletin board systems, private systems, and networks) and activities (e-mail, public messaging systems, software exchange, electronic publishing, entertainment, chat, educational and research services, and commercial applications). Cavazos and Morin then take up electronic privacy issues including anonymity and both statutory and common law approaches to protecting private communications (featuring a discussion of Steve Jackson Games v. United States Secret Service); the virtual marketplace of electronic contracts and credit card transactions; copyright law in an uncharted new world; freedom of speech; adult material (digitized images, animated sequences, sexually explicit text, hot chat); and cyber-crimes.

Who owns the copyright to messages on an electronic bulletin board? Is it illegal to download a sexually explicit file? Without resorting to confusing legalese, the authors answer these and other questions, and they present a clear and concise analysis of legal issues in the anarchic world of cyberspace for those who have little or no legal background. Illustrations.
Edward Cavazos is Managing Partner of at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in Austin, focusing on Intellectual Property. Cavazos is also Adjunct Professor at Texas Law at the University of Texas at Austin.