"Anthony Garcia" wrote:
Right on. With the exception of fraud (the danger of which is lessened by the use of appropriate cryptographic protocols in your business transactions), cyberspace is essentially crime free.
I have to disagree with this, especially the title 'is by nature'. Cyberspace as a communications forum still presents many opportunities for crime as are present in physical and related communications media. To rattle a few off the top of my head without thinking to broadly: - break and enter --> cracking/hacking (whatever you want to call it) - vilification, discrimination - sedition - inciting violence - fraud (as you've mentioned) - transfering funds, tax evasion - illegal business activity, false advertising - contempt of court - copyright infringment Admittedly by the nature of cyberspace, detecting and gaining evidence for these crimes can be more complicated than in a tangible physical medium, but none the less these actions are still criminal. In fact, I think it is much better that these activities are possible in cyberspace, since it's a better representation of the real world. Crime is pervasive, it is naive to expect that it would fail to follow people into cyberspace. Matthew. -- Matthew Gream Consent Technologies Sydney, (02) 821-2043 M.Gream@uts.edu.au