Discuss some of the new ways that computers and the Internet have made it possible for criminals to commit old crimes. Provide examples of how the law has changed to accommodate these new forms of old crimes

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Computers and the Internet have greatly enhanced the capacity to exploit information about individuals and about ideas; this can be used for good and for ill. Identity theft is the crime committed most often in the United States and the consequences of wrongful access to personal information can be devastating. Personal information about our health, our finances, and our likes and dislikes helps doctors, banks, and merchants help us. But it also helps identity thieves take our money and wreck our lives (V. Johnson 2005, 256–57) and, in extreme cases, even kill us and the people we love. Ideas and their practical application, intellectual property, can be the most valuable of all property any individual, business, or society can have. Computers and the Internet enhance the strength of intellectual property but also make them vulnerable. One example of how the law has changed to accommodate these new forms of old crimes is seen in the opinion in Remsburg v. Docusearch, Inc. where the court held that "an investigator who obtains a person's work address by means of pretextual phone calling, and then sells the information, may be liable for damages under RSA chapter 358-A to the person deceived.".