We are living in the digital age, a hyper-connected world, where information flows unhindered, across borders and time zones. While this ushers in a new level of business empowerment, social interaction, and individual experience, it poses new challenges to the legal framework worldwide touching upon issues such as jurisdiction, human rights, business, intellectual property, security, finance and more. Let’s briefly discuss them.
Human rights - Populations and legal bodies across the globe work to uphold human rights and individual liberty which are held paramount. The digital revolution poses significant challenges to lawmakers who have to redefine the existing paradigms that protect and interpret human rights.
For example, freedom of expression faces a challenge with hate and abusive messages found online. Adult material, fraud, misrepresentation, identity theft, eavesdropping, stalking, use of the internet for terrorist messages and inciting communal fervor, all in the name of freedom of expression, need more effective laws to counter. Emergence of AI based technologies have given rise to deep fakes and the like, bringing to the fore, concerns related to ethics, fairness and transparency.
Cyber security - In an environment of technology and digital innovation, the protection of intellectual property (IP) has become a critical concern for both individuals and enterprises.
In the digital age, IP can be easily copied, and shared. It is possible to download and distribute digital content, making it difficult to track down and stop copyright infringement. Also, the laws get more and more complex in terms of protection available for each technology - software, hardware, creative works and their enforcement mechanics. This poses new challenges for businesses, particularly small businesses that would not have the resources to seek legal recourse.
E-commerce - A post-internet phenomenon, e-commerce brings to the fore aspects related to product liabilities when bought and sold on the net. The other important aspect is data protection and privacy as it involves sensitive consumer data. Other challenges include IP infringements, taxes, contractual obligations, insurance and other associated aspects.
Financial transactions - The emergence of alternate models of currency for financial transactions like cryptocurrencies, poses complex challenges in terms of law. These include contractual issues and jurisdictional issues with technologies such as Blockchain which is the backbone of cryptocurrency. The nodes of a crypto transaction are located across geographies and hence, it becomes difficult to implement comprehensive and clear laws. Data theft, fraud and privacy are the other concerns.
Jurisdiction - In almost all activities, the concept of jurisdiction comes to the fore. Traditional laws are challenged by newer technologies such as open source software, internet based transactions and technologies like Blockchain, which diffuse the defined lines of ownership, IP protection and jurisdiction. So compliance, licensing and regulation become key issues. This involves newer rules of engagement with legal and enforcement authorities across borders.
Dayananda Sagar University (DSU) offers one of India’s most popular law degree programs. Students can choose to pursue a B.A. LL.B Hons. (5 year, full time program), B.B.A. LL.B, Hons. (5 year, full time program) and an LL.B (3 year, full time program).
The program has a comprehensive new-age curriculum that imparts contemporary legal knowledge with a strong focus on current technologies like AI and AR. It touches upon the challenges poised to the legal ecosystem with phishing, deep fakes, digital impersonation and similar crimes and their implications and impact on individual privacy and security. Students will be imparted with the current laws to tackle the same and the latest updates on what is being debated to address these developments. This ensures the Law program at DSU is current and comprehensive enabling successful students to pursue promising legal careers.
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