Defining the Boundaries of Computer Crime: Piracy, Trespass, and Vandalism in Cyberspace

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Defining the Boundaries of Computer Crime
Piracy, Trespass, and Vandalism in Cyberspace

• Herman T. Tavani

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Introduction

• The media has widely reported criminal and
  questionable activities
• May 2000, I Love You Virus (Love Bug)
• Feb 2000 cyber-attacks on commercial web sites
  Amazon, eBay, CNN, Yahoo, etc resulting in Denial
  of Service to customers
• Dec 1999, start of RIAA and Napster litigation
• These certainly seem like issues of cyber crime

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Intro (2)

• Other types of computer behaviors
• Pedophiles using Internet to lure unsuspecting
  young children
• Cyberstalking, at least one resulting in death of
  cyberstalking victim
• Some individuals use Internet to distribute child
  pornography
• Are these criminal activities examples of
  computer crime
• What constitutes computer crime? A key point of
  the paper

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Do we Need a Category of Computer Crime?

• Quick History of Computer Crimes
• 70s and 80s Crimes characterized by disgruntled
  employees who altered files in computer databases
  or sabotaged computer systems in the act of
  seeking revenge on employers, and hackers
  breaking into systems
• The Hackers would break into supposedly secure
  systems as a prank or malicious attempt to
  subvert data or its flow
• Some hackers used computers to transfer monetary
  funds from wealthy individuals and corporations
  to poorer individuals and corps

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Computer Crime as a Category(2)

• Some media reports portrayed young hackers as
  countercultural heroes
• Today, the attitude of many in the media and the
  public has shifted considerably
• Far fewer individuals and organizations are
  sympathetic to the causes of computer hackers
• Why? Possibly the growing dependence of citizens
  on the Internet
• A growing concern that cyberspace must become
  more secure and that hacking should not be
  tolerated

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Computer Crime as a Category(3)

• Many reports about misuses of computers but not a
  clear criteria for what constitutes a computer
  crime -- he will now work on this
• Should crimes involving the presence of one or
  more computers be classified as computer crimes?
• Or, is there nothing special about crimes that
  involve computers? (Gotterbarn 91)
• There have been times that it was thought any
  crime involving a computer was a computer crime
  but that may not necessarily be true

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Computer Crime as a Category (4)

• Is a murder involving the use of a scalpel
  automatically an issue in medical ethics just
  because a medical instrument was used?
• Johnson 84 initially wrote that crimes involving
  computers are not qualitatively different from
  crimes in which no computer is present but has
  modified her position (94)

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Do we need a Separate Category of Computer Crime?

• Gotterbarn and Johnson raise important points
  other critics do too.
• Also of note is that crimes of diverse types are
  also committed in many sectors but we dont have
  separate categories for crimes committed in each
  of those areas.
• So, do we need computer crime as a separate
  category?

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His Answer

• Three scenarios involving criminal activity and a
  computer but is it necessarily computer crime?
• 1) An individual steals a computer device (like a
  printer)
• 2) An individual breaks into a computer lab and
  then snoops around
• 3) An individual enters a lab they are authorized
  to enter and places an explosive device on a
  computer mainframe or server
• Each of these is criminal in nature but are they
  necessarily computer crime?

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How to look at these

• Are they unique because of the presence of
  computers?
• Could they be prosecuted as ordinary crimes
  involving theft, breaking and entering, and
  vandalism even though computers are present?
• Maybe then, we dont need a category of computer
  crime?
• Consider though, would having a category of
  computer crime help us to understand better
  certain nuances of illegal or immoral activities
  involving computer technology?
• Or, be helpful in prosecuting certain criminal
  activities involving the use of the technology
  that could be difficult to prosecute under
  conventional legal statues?

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Legal, Moral, and Informational/Descriptive
Categories of Computer Crime

• There are arguments for having computer crime as
  a separate category from legal, moral, and
  informational/descriptive perspectives
• Legally, computer crime might be viewed as a
  useful category for prosecuting certain kinds of
  crimes
• Much as some states have handgun laws that allow
  a crime involving handguns to be prosecuted as a
  handgun crime
• Would allow a crime involving a computer to be
  treated as a computer crime

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Would that be good?

• What if someone hits someone over the head with a
  handgun, should it be prosecuted as a handgun
  crime? Was that the intent of the law in that
  type of situation? What if the gun used was a
  toy? How is this different as a crime from
  hitting them on the head with a rock?
• This can be confusing to write appropriate
  legislation and points to potential problems in
  writing laws for computer crime or to prosecute
  all crimes involving the use or presence of
  computer technology under the specific legal
  category of computer crime

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Computer Crime as a Moral Category

• Is it useful as a moral category?
• There are a number of ethical questions that both
  precede and follow from declaring certain
  computer related activities illegal
• Which forms of online behavior should we
  criminalize?
• Are certain forms of online behavior inherently
  immoral or are they considered immoral only
  because they are declared illegal?
• Many of the ethical issues dealing with computer
  crime also border on issues involving
  intellectual property, personal privacy, and free
  speech in cyberspace

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Computer Crime as a Descriptive or Informational
Nature

• Recall James Moors article introducing idea of
  policy vacuums and conceptual muddles
• Computers make possible certain kinds of criminal
  activities that otherwise would not have been
  possible in the pre-computer era
• Our existing laws and policies are not always
  able to be extended to cover adequately at least
  certain kinds of crimes involving computers
• Having a descriptive category of computer crime
  can help resolve some of the conceptual
  confusions and muddles underlying crimes
  involving computers
• That could then help us to frame some legal and
  ethical policies regarding computer crime

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Establishing Clear and Coherent Criteria

• Forester and Morrison define a computer crime as
  a criminal act in which a computer is used as
  the principal tool.
• With this, the theft of a computer hardware
  device (printer), theft of an automobile full of
  microprocessors would not be a computer crime b/c
  the computer is not the principal tool for
  carrying out the crime
• Similarly, when we discussed breaking into the
  computer lab, vandalizing a computer system in
  the lab, these three examples are not computer
  crimes using this definition

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Does it work?

• What about the person who files their federal
  income tax forms online using the computer and
  fills in some forms with incorrect information?
• Clearly, they are using the computer as the
  principal tool
• Should it be a computer crime?
• Could have filled in the same wrong information
  with pencil and paper
• That he used the computer is coincident but not
  essential to this particular computer act
• Maybe this definition is not quite adequate

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Another Definition

• Combines Moors ideas as well as Morrisons and
  Fosters
• For a criminal act to be a computer crime, the
  act must be one that can be carried out only
  through the use of computer technology
• This capture Moors view that new opportunities
  (new possibilities for crime) are made possible
  because of the existence of the computer
  technology and,
• does incorporate Morrison and Fosters views while
  restricting the range of the crimes

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So, lets test this definition

• The income tax case-- rules it out
• Using a computer device in the act of assaulting
  someone?
• Rules it out too

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Applying our Definition to some Specific Cases

• Consider the earlier examples of this paper
• ILOVE YOU VIRUS as a criminal act and also a
  computer crime
• Denial of Service attacks as a criminal act and
  also a computer crime
• Distributing MP3 files via Napster also satisfies
  this proposed definition of computer crime

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What about the Questionable Examples?

• Pedophiles?
• Stalking someone
• Distributing child pornography
• He indicates that these are still all crimes but
  not strictly computer crimes using the last
  definition because all of these have been done in
  the past
• That is not to say that certain communities,
  states, or governments may not enact or have
  enacted laws that do make these computer crimes
  but from the philosophical definition given by
  Tavani they are not strictly computer crimes.

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Three types of Computer Crime Piracy, Trespass,
and Vandalism in Cyberspace p 521

• you read this section - may have a question