Other branches of the law. Chapter 9

• Published date: 01 January 2005
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC74027
• Date: 01 January 2005
• Author: Jason Mikellyn Charles Johnson
• Pages: 130-132

CHAPTER 9

OTHER BRANCHES OF THE LAW

Cyberlaw, as it is often termed, does not only have an influence on

the law of contract but will pervade a wide variety of other legal fields

as well. This chapter will not purport to deal with each in any mea-

sure of detail, but instead attempt to provide a broad indication of the

effect that the digital revolution has had and will continue to have

on other fields of legal expertise.

9.1 The Internet and other branches of the law

The following are examples of fields that have been influences to at

least some degree by the Internet and related technological advances:

9.1.1 Criminal law

The above statistics from the specialized SAPS Computer Crime

Unit, reveal that a number of crimes are committed via the Internet

or computer technology.The unit defines computer crime as crime

where a computer or computer software is involved in the perpe-

tration or commission thereof, or where the evidence of a crime is

to be found on a form of computer storage.

In the majority of cases, the existing definitions of the various crimes

such as fraud will be applicable to the online version of the crime.

In other instances such as theft, the common law definition requires

a physical object to be stolen and does not make provision for the

theft of data.

In addition to this, when data is “stolen”, the normal modus ope-

randi of the thief would be to simply make a copy of the data, as

opposed to removing it. Obviously in the case of the theft of a mo-

vable form of storage such as CDs, tapes, disks and other forms

of removable storage, the situation will be different.

If a person were to be charged with having stolen a computer CD

with various data on it, the charge of theft would extend only to the

physical disk and not to the content thereof in terms of the present

definition. Naturally, however, the replacement cost of the CD in

question, may be a extenuating factor in relation to any sentencing

that could be imposed.

As far as statutory crimes committed over the Internet are con-

cerned, the most prevalent would appear to be child pornography,

criminalised by the Films and Publications Act, 1996. This form of

crime makes up a large portion of the statistics of cases dealt with

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