Month: February 2010

Let’s be honest there is nothing more exciting than finding a new gadget that can at the very least keep you entertained and at the very most revolutionise the way you do things. Okay I admit that these are not easy criteria against which you can judge a new gadget.

I guess on reflection the gadget might not have to revolutionise your life but nevertheless it should without doubt use new technology and make you raise a smile. Some of the best examples of new gadgets are the range of USB gadgets that have been released onto the market.

For those technophobes out there the USB or Universal Serial Bus is, put simply, a way of connecting an external device to your computer. A lot of people these days carry around small USB pens that hold information at play the same role that the floppy disc used to.

Nowadays a great deal of the equipment that is used alongside a computer such as a keyboard and the mouse can be connected this way. And in the gadget world many toys have been created that utilise this technology.

I was recently given a USB pole dancing woman that I have called Beatrice. Beatrice dances every time I type a word into my keyboard. She also keeps count of the number of words I write in a day – she’s not just a pretty face then! My colleagues and I find it hilarious although I don’t think my boss is too impressed when she stays quiet for half a day – a big giveaway if you’re not writing!

Anyway here is an insight into some of the best USB offerings that I have found available in the market.

USB Boxer

I recently came across the USB boxer. This six inch tall guy stands on your desk and pounds away at a punch bag at the rate at which you punch. The device comes with unbelievable sound effects that sound on the impact of the gloves to the punch bag and makes authentic ringside noises.

The software package includes some games in which you can enact a boxing bout and the action on screen is relayed and played out by the man in front of you. Pitched as a great way to work out some aggression this USB gadget really packs a punch!

USB putting green

The USB putting green is a great way to play golf against your workmates without even leaving the office. You don’t need a silly dress code just a slightly silly sense of humour. It is a miniature version of the conventional ball returning putt returner.

The aim of the game is to putt into the centre of the device and the ball is subsequently spat back at you. It comes with two miniature putters and fortunately six tiny balls – there is no excuse for losing them then – especially considering you are unlikely to have a water hazard or bunker on your desk.

USB Dog

Okay this takes the prize for the funniest, yet at the same time, most tasteless of all the USB gadgets I have come across. The dog is attached to a USB device which, when connected to the computer, humps away like a dog on heat. The marketing men say that your computer has done a great deal for you and that it’s about time you gave something back. I’m not sure this is exactly what they meant but very funny nevertheless!

E-contracts in cyber space

By

S J TUBRAZY

 

Traditional concept of contract provides the foundations to all types of valid and enforceable contract, keeping in view the meanings of definition of contract as, ‘all agreements are contracts if they are made by the free assent of parties competent to contract, for a lawful consideration and with a lawful object and are not thereby expressly declared to be void’ the term contract would include invitation to tender and instruction to renderers, ‘tender, and acceptance thereof.

An electronic contract is an agreement created and “signed” in electronic form — in other words, no paper or other hard copies are used. For example, you write a contract on your computer and email it to a business associate, and the business associate emails it back with an electronic signature indicating acceptance. An e-contract can also be in the form of a “Click to Agree” contract, commonly used with downloaded software. The user clicks an “I Agree” button on a page containing the terms of the software license before the transaction can be completed.

 

The United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. A/ RES/51/ 162, dated 30th January 1997, Chapter III and specifically Article 11 sets about the formation and validity of E-contract.

Article 11 states that in the context of the contract formation unless otherwise agreed by the parties, on offer and the acceptance of an offer may be expressed by means of data message. Where data message is used in the formation of a contract that contact shall not be denied validity or enforceability on the sole ground that a data message was used for that purpose.

 

Simultaneously, Article 12 states that as between the originator and the addressee of a data message, a declaration of will or other statement shall not be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely on the ground that it is in form of a data message.

 

According to UNCITRAL Model Law, Article 11 is not intended to interfere with the law on formation of contracts but rather to promote international trade by providing augmented legal certainty as to the conclusion of contracts by electronic means. In certain countries a provision along with the lines of provision of Articles 11 might be regarded as merely stating the obvious, namely that an offer and an acceptance, as any other expression of will, can be communicated by any means, including data message. However the considerable number of countries as to whether contracts can validly be concluded by electronic means. Such reservations may stem from the fact that, in certain cases, the data message expressing offer and acceptance are generated by computer without instantaneous human intervention, thus raising doubts as to be expression of intent by the parties. Another reason of such uncertainties is inherent in the modes of communication and results from the absence of a paper document.

 

As to the time and place of formation of contracts, in cases where an offer or the acceptance of an offer is expressed by means of a data message, no specific rule has been included in the Model Law in order not to interfere with national law applicable to contract formation. It was felt that such a provision might exceed the aim of the Model Law which should be limited to providing that electronic communication would achieve the same degree legal certainty as paper-based communication. The continuance of existing rules on the formation of contracts with the provisions contained in Article 15 is designed to drive out uncertainty as to the time and place of formation of contract in case where the offer or the acceptance are exchanged electronically.

 

During the preparation of provisions of Article 11, it was felt that the provision might have the harmful effect of overruling otherwise applicable provisions of national law, which might prescribe specific formalities for the formation of certain contracts. Such forms include notarization and other requirements for writings and might respond consideration of public policy, such as the need to protect certain parties or to warn them against specific risks. For that reason Article 12 provides that an enacting State can exclude the applicability of provisions of Article 11 in certain instances to be specified in the regulation enacting the Model Law. 

 

While much of the contract formation discussion revolves around the use of computer technology as a means of communication by contracting parties, a far more difficult issue is beginning to emerge with the automation of the contracting process itself. Traditional contract doctrine centers around the requirement of a `meeting of the minds’. The involvement of two or more people, negotiating either face-to-face or through some means of communication is an underlying assumption. However, modern technology is evolving with a goal of eliminating human involvement in transactions. How traditional contract doctrine will accommodate situations where the only `minds’ that meet are programmed computer systems is uncertain.

For transactions caught by the International Sale of Goods Act, the “mailbox rule” does not apply. Instead, the Act sets out that the acceptance of an offer becomes effective at the moment the indication of assent reaches the offeror.

To protect consumers from potential abuses, electronic versions of the following documents are invalid and unenforceable:

wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts
documents relating to adoption, divorce etc, 
court orders, notices, and other court documents such as pleadings or motions
notices of default, repossession, foreclosure, or eviction, etc

These documents must be provided in traditional paper and ink format.

Business-to-business contracts are an indispensable part of trading business relations

since many centuries. With the advent of information technology, companies

started using information technologies to support their trading relations. Consequently,

in trading relations supported by modern information technology, traditional paper

contracts become an inefficient and ineffective instrument to guarantee the rights and

specify the obligations of the trading parties and electronic contracts become a

necessity. Electronic contracts are the instrument to govern electronic trading relationships between business parties. A number of efforts exist in both the academic and industrial worlds to define an e-contract specification language.

(The author is Lawyer of cyber laws in Pakistan)

CYBER CRIMES

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION: 

 

With the day to day evolution of human mind , the modes of committing crime are also drastically changing . Criminals are getting smarter day by day and are applying there minds in this context to commit crime and escape without getting caught. With the advent of computers no one thought that it will become a mode or source of committing crime . Charles Babbage who is well known as the father of computer would not have dreamt that the machine he is giving the world may become a source of crime and would ever influence the society in a negative way.

 

Whenever we talk about cyber crime we can make out that its something related to a wrong  done were a computer system is involved .

The term ‘cyber crime’ is a wrongly applied name. This term has nowhere been defined in any statute /Act passed or enacted by the Indian Parliament. The concept of cyber crime is not radically different from the concept of conventional crime. Both include conduct whether act or omission, which cause breach of rules of law and counterbalanced by the sanction of the state. Though cyber crimes is a new breed of crimes which came into being just after the advent of the computers and the scenario has become more worse with the influence of internet in our day to day life.

 

 

 CONVENTIONAL CRIME-

 

 Crime is a social and economic phenomenon and is as old as the human society. Crime is a legal concept and has the sanction of the law. Crime is defined as “a legal wrong that can be followed by criminal proceedings which may result into punishment.”.  A crime may be said to be any conduct accompanied by act or omission prohibited by law and consequential breach of which is visited by penal consequences.

 

 

 CYBER CRIME:

 

 Cyber crime is the latest and perhaps the most complicated problem in the cyber world. “Cyber crime may be said to be those species, of which, genus is the conventional crime, and where either the computer is an object or subject of the conduct constituting crime. In general cyber crime may be defined as “ unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or target or both”.

 

The computer may be used as a tool in the following kinds of activity- financial crimes, sale of illegal articles, pornography, online gambling, intellectual property crime, e-mail spoofing, forgery, cyber defamation, cyber stalking. The computer may however be a  target for unlawful acts in the following cases- unauthorized access to computer/ computer system/ computer networks, theft of information contained in the ,electronic form,

 e-mail bombing,  salami attacks, logic bombs, Trojan attacks, internet time thefts, web jacking, theft of computer system, physically damaging the computer system.

 

 

DISTINCTION BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL AND CYBER CRIME-

 

 There is apparently no distinction between cyber and conventional crime as both the crimes results into some sort of loss to one of the parties. However on a deep introspection we may say that there exists a fine line of demarcation between the conventional and cyber crime, which is appreciable. The demarcation lies in the involvement of the medium in cases of cyber crime.

 

 

MODE AND MANNER OF COMMITING CYBER CRIME:

 

 

1.      HACKING:

   

 This kind of offence is normally referred as hacking in the generic sense. However the framers of the information technology Act 2000 have no where used this term so to avoid any confusion we would not interchangeably use the word hacking for ‘unauthorized access’ as the latter has wide connotation.

 

2. THEFT OF INFORMATION CONTAINED IN ELECTRONIC FORM:

This includes information stored in computer hard disks, removable storage media etc.  Theft may be either by appropriating the data physically or by tampering them through the virtual medium.

3.  EMAIL BOMBARDING:

This kind of activity refers to sending large numbers of mail to the victim, which may be an individual or a company or even mail servers there by ultimately resulting into crashing of the entire system.

4.  DATA DIDDLING:

This kind of an attack involves altering raw data just before a computer processes it and then changing it back after the processing is completed.

5. SALAMI ATTACKS:

This kind of crime is normally prevalent in the financial institutions or for the purpose of committing financial crimes. An important feature of this type of offence is that the alteration is so small that it would normally go unnoticed.

6. DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK:

The computer of the victim is flooded with more requests than it can handle which cause it to crash. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is also a type of denial of service attack, in which the offenders are wide in number and widespread.

7. VIRUS OR WORM ATTACKS:

 Viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or a file and then circulate themselves to other files and to other computers on a network. They usually affect the data on a computer, either by altering or deleting it. Worms, unlike viruses do not need the host to attach themselves to. They merely make functional copies of themselves and do this repeatedly till they eat up all the available space on a computer’s memory. E.g. love bug virus, which affected at least 5 % of the computers of the globe. The losses were accounted to be $ 10 million. The world’s most famous worm was the Internet worm let loose on the Internet by Robert Morris sometime in 1988.  Almost brought development of Internet to a complete halt.

8. LOGIC BOMBS:

 These are event dependent programs. This implies that these programs are created to do something only when a certain event (known as a trigger event) occurs. E.g. even some viruses may be termed logic bombs because they lie dormant all through the year and become active only on a particular date (like the Chernobyl virus).

9. TROJAN ATTACKS:

 This term has its origin in the word ‘Trojan horse’. In software field this means an unauthorized programme, which passively gains control over another’s system by representing itself as an authorised programme. The most common form of installing a Trojan is through e-mail. E.g. a Trojan was installed in the computer of a lady film director in the U.S. while chatting. The cyber criminal through the web cam installed in the computer obtained her nude photographs. He further harassed this lady.

10. INTERNET TIME THEFT:

Normally in these kinds of thefts the Internet surfing hours of the victim are used up by another person. This is done by gaining access to the login ID and the password. E.g. Colonel Bajwa’s case- the Internet hours were used up by any other person. This was perhaps one of the first reported cases related to cyber crime in India. However this case made the police infamous as to their lack of understanding of the nature of cyber crime.

11. WEB JACKING:

  This term is derived from the term hi jacking. In these kinds of offences the hacker gains access and control over the web site of another. He may even mutilate or change the information on the site. This may be done for fulfilling political objectives or for money. E.g. recently the site of MIT (Ministry of Information Technology) was hacked by the Pakistani hackers and some obscene matter was placed therein. Further the site of Bombay crime branch was also web jacked. Another case of web jacking is that of the ‘gold fish’ case. In this case the site was hacked and the information pertaining to gold fish was changed. Further a ransom of US $ 1 million was demanded as ransom. Thus web jacking is a process where by control over the site of another is made backed by some consideration for it.

CLASSIFICATION OF CYBER CRIMES:

The subject of cyber crime may be broadly classified under the following three groups. They are-

1. Against Individuals :

a. against person
b. their property of an individual
 

2. Against Organization :

a. Government
c. Firm, Company, Group of Individuals.

3. Against Society at large 

Against Individuals: –

They can be:
i.   Harassment via e-mails.
ii. Cyber-stalking.
iii. Dissemination of obscene material.
iv. Defamation.
v.  Unauthorized control/access over computer system.
vi. Fraud and cheating

Against Individual Property: - 

i. Computer vandalism.
ii. Transmitting virus.
iii. Netrespass
iv. Unauthorized control/access over computer system.
v. Intellectual Property crimes
vi. Internet time thefts

Against Organization: –

i. Unauthorized control/access over computer system
ii. Possession of unauthorized information.
iii. Cyber terrorism against the government organization.
iv. Distribution of pirated software etc.

Against Society at large: –

i.     Pornography (basically child pornography).
ii.    Polluting the youth through indecent exposure.
iii.   Trafficking
iv.   Financial crimes
v.    Sale of illegal articles
vi.   Online gambling
vii.  Forgery

 Some of the above mentioned offences may discussed in brief as follows:

 

 1.       Harassment via e-mails- 

              Harassment through e-mails is not a new concept. It is very similar to harassing through letters.  

2.        Cyber-stalking-

The Oxford dictionary defines stalking as “pursuing stealthily”. Cyber stalking   involves following a person’s movements across the Internet by posting messages (sometimes threatening) on the bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering the chat-rooms frequented by the victim, constantly bombarding the victim with emails etc.

3.                 Dissemination of obscene material-

  Pornography on the net may take various forms. It may include the hosting of web site containing these prohibited materials. Use of computers for producing these obscene materials. Downloading through the Internet, obscene materials. These obscene matters may cause harm to the mind of the adolescent and tend to deprave or corrupt their mind. Two known cases of pornography are the Delhi Bal Bharati case and the Bombay case wherein two Swiss couple used to force the slum children for obscene photographs. The Mumbai police later arrested them.

 4.       Defamation

It is an act of imputing any person with intent to lower the person in the estimation of the right-thinking members of society generally or to cause him to be shunned or avoided or to expose him to hatred, contempt or ridicule. Cyber defamation is not different from conventional defamation except the involvement of a virtual medium. E.g. the mail account of Rohit was hacked and some mails were sent from his account to some of his batch mates regarding his affair with a girl with intent to defame him.

 5.      Unauthorized control/access over computer system-

 This activity is commonly referred to as hacking. The Indian law has however given a different connotation to the term hacking, so we will not use the term “unauthorized access” interchangeably with the term “hacking” to prevent confusion as the term used in the Act of 2000 is much wider than hacking.

 

 

 6.         Computer vandalism-

  Vandalism means deliberately destroying or damaging property of another. Thus computer vandalism may include within its purview any kind of physical harm done to the computer of any person. These acts may take the form of the theft of a computer, some part of a computer or a peripheral attached to the computer or by physically damaging a computer or its peripherals.

 

  8.      Intellectual Property crimes / Distribution of pirated software-

 Intellectual property consists of a bundle of rights. Any unlawful act by which the owner is deprived completely or partially of his rights is an offence. The common form of IPR violation may be said to be software piracy, copyright infringement, trademark and service mark violation, theft of computer source code, etc.

 

   9.       Cyber terrorism against the government organization

  At this juncture a necessity may be felt that what is the need to distinguish between cyber terrorism and cyber crime. Both are criminal acts. However there is a compelling need to distinguish between both these crimes. A cyber crime is generally a domestic issue, which may have international consequences, however cyber terrorism is a global concern, which has domestic as well as international consequences.

  The common form of these terrorist attacks on the Internet is by distributed denial of service attacks, hate websites and hate emails, attacks on sensitive computer networks, etc.  Cyber terrorism may be defined to be “ the premeditated use of disruptive activities, or the threat thereof, in cyber space, with the intention to further social, ideological, religious, political or similar objectives, or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such objectives”

  Another definition may be attempted to cover within its ambit every act of cyber terrorism.

A terrorist means a person who indulges in wanton killing of persons or in violence or in disruption of services or means of communications essential to the community or in damaging property with the view to –

(1) putting the public or any section of the public in fear; or

(2) affecting adversely the harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities; or

(3) coercing or overawing the government established by law; or

(4) endangering the sovereignty and integrity of the nation

and a cyber terrorist is the person who uses the computer system as a means or ends to achieve the above objectives. Every act done in pursuance thereof is an act of cyber terrorism.

    10.     Trafficking

   Trafficking may assume different forms. It may be trafficking in drugs, human beings, arms weapons etc. These forms of trafficking are going unchecked because they are carried on under pseudonyms. A racket was busted in Chennai where drugs were being sold under the pseudonym of honey.  

 

11.                           Fraud & Cheating

 Online fraud and cheating is one of the most lucrative businesses that are growing today in the cyber space. It may assume different forms. Some of the cases of online fraud and cheating that have come to light are those pertaining to credit card crimes, contractual crimes, offering jobs, etc.

 

STATUTORY PROVISIONS:

The Indian parliament considered it necessary to give effect to the resolution by which the General Assembly adopted Model Law on Electronic Commerce adopted by the United Nations Commission on Trade Law. As a consequence of which the Information Technology Act 2000 was passed and enforced on 17th May 2000.the preamble of this Act states its objective to legalise e-commerce and further amend the Indian Penal Code 1860, the Indian Evidence Act 1872, the Banker’s Book Evidence Act1891 and   the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934.  The basic purpose to incorporate the changes in these Acts is to make them compatible with the Act of 2000. So that they may regulate and control the affairs of the cyber world in an effective manner.            

CONCLUSION:

  Capacity of human mind is unfathomable. It is not possible to eliminate cyber crime from the cyber space. It is quite possible to check them. History is the witness that no legislation has succeeded in totally eliminating crime from the globe. The only possible step is to make people aware of their rights and duties (to report crime as a collective duty towards the society) and further making the application of the laws more stringent to check crime. Undoubtedly the Act is a historical step in the cyber world. Further I all together do not deny that there is a need to bring changes in the Information Technology Act to make it more effective to combat cyber crime. I would conclude with a word of caution for the pro-legislation school that it should be kept in mind that the provisions of the cyber law are not made so stringent that it may retard the growth of the industry and prove to be counter-productive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While most industries have been affected by the development of new technologies, the real estate industry has been turned on its head thanks to the introduction of new technologies.

This was once a very personal business where referrals could make or break an agent’s career. A client would be dependent on their agent for information about property values, market trends, and current inventory available in their local market. If a client had a question for his agent, he would have to leave a message at the agent’s office and wait around for a reply. Depending on the number of other clients the agent had, the client could be kept waiting for a very long time.

This waiting game could be a very frustrating experience for proactive buyers and sellers who wanted to be in the know when it comes to handling the biggest investment of their lives. Fortunately, new technology has made the real estate industry much more accessible to the average person.

Cellular phones have had a huge impact on the real estate industry. Rather than sitting around playing phone tag with your agent, you can now reach them directly, and leave a message where they will be sure to get it. Communications are sped up and made more effective, meaning that much less time is wasted, and misunderstandings are less likely to occur.

Another benefit of the cell phone is that real estate agents are always in touch with their offices as well as with other agents. This means that they are on top of local market activities such as when a hot new property enters the market. Buyers who want to make an offer on a home can also get their bids on the table as quick as possible. The real estate market is always in flux, and cell phones enable agents and clients to roll better with the punches.

The internet has changed the way buyers, sellers, and realtors do business. Internet search technology is continually improving, making it easier for searchers to find relevant information in a short amount of time.

Buyers can search online MLS databases to view homes from all around the country. Sellers can have their homes featured on their agent’s homepage as well as on online databases. This has been an excellent development for clients because they can see examples of what they like, what price ranges are out there, and the availability of homes in their market area.

Some argue that because clients are able to locate properties on the internet, that real estate agents’ value will decrease. What is important to keep in mind is the fact that real estate agents provide a much greater service than simply providing a list of available properties on the market. While you may be able to find homes on the internet on your own, not every available property will be on all of the databases. Your agent will have inside info and can pare down the house search for you. They also navigate the many other issues that are involve with buying or selling a home. The internet has not changed the need for good quality agents in the least.

Blogging is a great tool for real estate agents. With such a focus on online technologies, the real estate industry can lose some of the personal interaction that was once such an integral part of the industry. Blogging can change that. By writing a blog for their websites, realtors are able to share their opinions, prompt discussions, and show a bit of their personality. This can be invaluable in showing potential clients why they should hire you. Also, it is of benefit for you personally, as you are able to express yourself and network with other real estate professionals.

While some people believed that the internet was going to spell the end for real estate agents, this has not come to fruition. In fact, the real estate industry is continuing to thrive. For agents who are willing to go with the flow and adjust to the changing technologies, both clients and agents can benefit.

Nokia the world’s renowned company in mobile manufacturing has recently launched a masterpiece which is nothing but the best, the all new Nokia 3600 has been made considering all the mobile freaks as it got everything which a mobile phone should have in it and the technology which have been implemented is truly awesome and do not have any match. The design of Nokia 3600 is so compact and sleek and also it is very smooth which makes it too good in looks. Also the features are unusual means the features are the old built with a new definition and the way to use.

 First of all, the camera which has a 3.2 mega pixels Carl Zeiss optical lens with a zoom of 8x. Through this camera a person can take awesome quality picture anytime and anywhere and also the quality of picture can be adjusted according to whether and the light conditions. The video recording is also highly admirable as without blurring, high quality videos can be recorded because of its speed which is more than 30 frames per second and which is just superb.

There are many more features which make it more superior than others like its sound system which gives the extremely unbeatable sound and also the FM in it is good as in this one can switch to their desired frequency and one can save their favorite channel by the name they wish. These features can be easily find in any of the multimedia phone but the thing which matters is the quality which is just incredible in the new Nokia 3600 like it has a unique feature of background noise cancellation which works automatically for the cancellation of the background sound to make the incoming sound more clear and impressive.

The internal memory of the Nokia 3600 is 512 MB and also it can be extended up to 4 GB if one wants to makes its own music library or  want to store unlimited pictures. One can store anything like music, pictures, games or some other document and do whatever he want do with this 4 GB memory.