* Be aware of legal issues
Not being a lawyer does not absolve us from knowing about basics of the law in the jurisdictions where we work. At a minimum, IA professionals need to be familiar with elements of criminal law such as definitions of cybercrimes, proper procedures for collaborating effectively with law enforcement officials, methods of collecting and preserving data as evidence that can successfully be used in criminal trials, and intellectual property law.
How many times have you had to gabble, “I-am-not-a-lawyer-and-this-is-not-legal-advice.-For-legal-advice,-consult-an-attorney-with-expertise-in-this-area-of-the-law”? Regrettably often abbreviated “IANAL,” which raises entirely different questions about the writer, this phrase is often used when non-lawyers are discussing legal issues.
The hideously formatted Word DOC file from the Washington State Practice of Law Board that I found thanks to an article on Wikipedia (NO, students, you may NOT use Wikipedia as a primary reference – this is a reference to one of the citations that I downloaded personally and read for myself) makes it clear that the unauthorized practice of law is illegal in Washington State – as it is elsewhere in the United States. Don’t give people legal advice if you are not their lawyer, and definitely not if you are not a lawyer at all.
Incidentally, for any readers who actually do discuss legal affairs on their Web sites and blogs, there’s an excellent review of legal constraints on such services from Margaret Hensler Nicholls in the Summer 2005 issue of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics.
However, not being a lawyer does not absolve us from knowing about basics of the law in the jurisdictions where we work. At a minimum, IA professionals need to be familiar with elements of criminal law such as definitions of cybercrimes, proper procedures for collaborating effectively with law enforcement officials, methods of collecting and preserving data as evidence that can successfully be used in criminal trials, and intellectual property law. I have recently updated my narrated overview lectures on these topics (with a U.S. perspective) and hope that readers will find them useful:
• Introduction to cyberlaw and jurisdiction (125 MB)
PPSX in ZIP
• Introduction to intellectual property law (109 MB)
PPSX in ZIP
In addition, there are many useful materials including U.S. Department of Justice guidelines on handling electronic crime scenes freely available for anyone to download in my undergraduate CJ341 lecture pages.
Readers may find the following texts helpful in studying cyberlaw:
• Cavazos, E. & G. Morin (1996). Cyberspace and the Law: Your Rights and Duties in the On-Line World. MIT Press (Cambridge, MA). ISBN 0-262-53123-2. 220pp.Cybercrime: The Investigation, Prosecution and Defense of a Computer-Related Crime, Second Edition. Carolina Academic Press (ISBN 1-59460-150-X). 282 pp.Cyberlaw: National and International Perspectives. Prentice Hall (Upper Saddle River, NJ). ISBN 0-13-065564-3. 433 pp.Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers. Published via e-mail.Cybercrime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime. Matthew Bender & Co. (ISBN 1-59345-303-5). 258 pp.NetLaw: Your Rights in the Online World. Osborne/McGraw-Hill (New York). ISBN 0-078-82077-4. 372 pp.CyberLaw: The Law of the Internet. Springer-Verlag (New York). ISBN 0-387-94832-5. 362 pp.The Law of Electronic Commerce: EDI, Fax, and E-mail — Technology, Proof and Liability. Association of Records Managers. ISBN 0-316-95632-5. 471 pp.Business Law and Computer Security: Achieving Enterprise Objectives through Data Control. SANS Press. ISBN 0-974-37271-4. 105 pp.
• Clifford, R. D. (2006).
• Girasa, R. J. (2002).
• Lessig, L. (2006). Code: and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0. Basic Books (New York). ISBN 0-465-03914-6. 432 pp.
• Lessig, L., D. Post & E. Volokh (1997).
• Moore, R. (2005).
• Rose, L. J. (1994).
• Rosenoer, J. (1997).
• Wright, B. (1996).
• Wright, B. (2003).
In my next column, I’ll point readers to the single most valuable research tool in following developments in law that affect IA (or any aspect of law): the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (LII).
