Information Crimes and Information Torts
Charles Carreon
In this section I cover two of my favorite fields – information crimes and information torts. I lump them together because, in practice, most information crimes are also information torts. For example, if someone steals your snail mail so they can get your complimentary checks and personal information, that’s a low-tech information crime, for which the local prosecutor may bring charges. It is also a tort, a civil wrong for which you can file a lawsuit. For the one act of theft, there can be two legal consequences – a criminal prosecution and a lawsuit.
However, as we discuss below, the prosecutors are usually both ill-equipped and indisposed to prosecute acts, like the theft of email from a server, that they aren’t sure really are crimes. Because unlike torts, which are defined primarily from the case law created by judges, and can be stretched to fit new situations, crimes are always defined in statutes, laws adopted by the State legislatures or the United States Congress. And sometimes the courts manifest incredible obtuseness when interpreting information-age statutes like the Electronic Crime Prevention Act, which was recently interpreted to make unlawful only the interception of emails while in transit through a network, instead of, far more commonsensically, finding the theft of email to be criminal wherever and however committed.
Meet a New Criminal — The Atavistic Geek
The dawn of widespread Internet communication heralded the beginning of a new day for fraud, forgery and larceny. A new criminal type has appeared to exploit the plethora of opportunities for theft and mischief — the atavistic geek. An atavist refuses to acknowledge social restraints that prevent him from pursuing his exclusive personal benefit. I prefer this description to “hackers,” because cracking codes and invading networks is actually some of the least common antisocial activity engaged in by atavistic geeks. The free range they are allowed on the Internet feeds their antisocial impulses in myriads of ways, rewarding them for their misdeeds with money, status, and often, entry into legitimate business.
This Ain’t Rocket Science
Atavistic geeks are not necessarily any smarter than your average car thief, and just like a car thief can remain fully employed because he knows how to steal cars and deliver them to his fence, atavistic geeks sometimes develop only the basic skills needed to know how to deceive people and deliver them to their boss for full and effective exploitation. Just like car thieves, they are expendable people, usually too morally uneducated to understand the harm they are causing or the risks they run. Of course, the atavistic geek faces much less of a likelihood of apprehension than the average car thief, leading me to say that anyone who commits crimes without a computer is simply running unnecessary risks. Nevertheless, their cleverness should not move us to admiration or pity – these people need real jobs.
In this section I cover two of my favorite fields – information crimes and information torts. I lump them together because, in practice, most information crimes are also information torts. For example, if someone steals your snail mail so they can get your complimentary checks and personal information, that’s a low-tech information crime, for which the local prosecutor may bring charges. It is also a tort, a civil wrong for which you can file a lawsuit. For the one act of theft, there can be two legal consequences – a criminal prosecution and a lawsuit.
However, as we discuss below, the prosecutors are usually both ill-equipped and indisposed to prosecute acts, like the theft of email from a server, that they aren’t sure really are crimes. Because unlike torts, which are defined primarily from the case law created by judges, and can be stretched to fit new situations, crimes are always defined in statutes, laws adopted by the State legislatures or the United States Congress. And sometimes the courts manifest incredible obtuseness when interpreting information-age statutes like the Electronic Crime Prevention Act, which was recently interpreted to make unlawful only the interception of emails while in transit through a network, instead of, far more commonsensically, finding the theft of email to be criminal wherever and however committed.
Meet a New Criminal — The Atavistic Geek
The dawn of widespread Internet communication heralded the beginning of a new day for fraud, forgery and larceny. A new criminal type has appeared to exploit the plethora of opportunities for theft and mischief — the atavistic geek. An atavist refuses to acknowledge social restraints that prevent him from pursuing his exclusive personal benefit. I prefer this description to “hackers,” because cracking codes and invading networks is actually some of the least common antisocial activity engaged in by atavistic geeks. The free range they are allowed on the Internet feeds their antisocial impulses in myriads of ways, rewarding them for their misdeeds with money, status, and often, entry into legitimate business.
This Ain’t Rocket Science
Atavistic geeks are not necessarily any smarter than your average car thief, and just like a car thief can remain fully employed because he knows how to steal cars and deliver them to his fence, atavistic geeks sometimes develop only the basic skills needed to know how to deceive people and deliver them to their boss for full and effective exploitation. Just like car thieves, they are expendable people, usually too morally uneducated to understand the harm they are causing or the risks they run. Of course, the atavistic geek faces much less of a likelihood of apprehension than the average car thief, leading me to say that anyone who commits crimes without a computer is simply running unnecessary risks. Nevertheless, their cleverness should not move us to admiration or pity – these people need real jobs.