Importance of Cyber Law

Recently a student asked me, "Sir, why have you opted Cyber Law post MBA, you could have chose any other subject. Is there are reason behind it?"

When he asked me this question I smiled. It was not just him, many asked me the same question. They felt I wasted my precious time by doing Post-graduation in Cyber Law.

In 2014 I started a consultancy called "Whtnext Business Solutions" with my friends. It was into Marketing, Strategy, Digital Marketing (it was the time when DM was viewed as a waste of time), and Business Consultancy. In a span of 6 months we managed to tie-up with 5 clients from Education, Information Technology, and Healthcare. During this process many liked our strategies and approach except one i.e., using internet to sell their products. The reason was, they believed in the traditional business model which was practiced for decades. Though they liked the idea that their products can reach other states in India, what stopped them from taking that one step was, "Is there any law that makes sure everything goes smoothly on the Internet...... how can we trust a client without meeting him face to face. How can we trust a message or chat and send our products...Can you guarantee that the transactions will happen without any errors and so on. and on....".

After listening to these questions I felt to build confidence in myself and my clients I opted Cyber law. I wanted to show them that there are laws that protect us and help us.

Now let us see, What is Cyber law is and Why we need it? 

Cyber Law also known as the Internet Law is the part of overall legal system that deals with the Internet, Cyberspace, and their respective legal issues. It covered a broad area encompassing several topics including freedom of expression, access to use and usage of the internet, and online privacy. It helps protect users from harm by enabling the investigation and prosecution of online criminal activity/Cyber-crime. It applies to the actions of individuals, groups, the public, government, and private organisations.

Unlike other areas of the law, cyber law cannot be identified as one solid, stable, and specific field of practice. Rather, it incorporates and applies principles from several traditional fields, such as privacy law or contract law, that predate the internet.

Cyber law can include the following

    - Laws related to the creation of websites

    - Laws governing Internet Service Providers

    - Laws related to how trademarks are used online

    - Laws regarding how to resolve conflicts over domain names

    - Laws related to how to link web pages

Why we need Cyber Law?

When Internet was developed, the founding fathers didn't know that internet could transform itself into a revolution which could be misused for criminal activities. Today, there are many disturbing things happening in cyberspace. Due to the anonymous nature of the Internet, it is possible to engage into a variety of criminal activities with impunity, and people with intelligence have been grossly misusing this aspect of the Internet to perpetuate criminal activities in cyberspace. Hence the need for Cyberlaws in India.

Cyberlaw touches almost all aspects of transactions and activities on and concerning the Internet, the World Wide Web and Cyberspace. Initially it may seem that Cyberlaws is a very technical field and that it does not have any bearing to most activities in Cyberspace. But the actual truth is that nothing could be further than the truth. Whether we realize it or not, every action and every reaction in Cyberspace has some legal and Cyber legal perspectives. Since the internet is constantly evolving, laws surrounding its use cannot be informed solely by precedent or common law. There is a great amount of uncertainty regarding what is permitted according to internet law, and there is still a great deal to discover and to decide.