RESEARCH STARTER

Information technology law (cyberlaw)

Information technology law, often referred to as cyberlaw, encompasses legal issues related to the internet, computers, and digital technology. As society increasingly relies on digital communication and services, this branch of law addresses new challenges that traditional legal frameworks are ill-equipped to handle. With the advent of broadband and wireless technology, the internet has transformed how individuals interact, conduct business, and share information. However, this digital landscape also raises concerns about data security, jurisdictional complexities, and intellectual property rights.

Legal practitioners in this field confront issues such as online fraud, data theft, and the implications of cyberbullying, necessitating adaptations of existing laws. Intellectual property, in particular, is a significant focus, as the ease of sharing digital content has made piracy and copyright infringement more prevalent. Cyberlaw also grapples with the implications of emerging technologies and their potential to outpace legal regulations, highlighting the ongoing need for legal frameworks to evolve in response to digital trends. Moreover, as misinformation and digital manipulation threaten democratic processes, the balance between regulation and free speech remains a contentious topic. Understanding information technology law is essential for anyone engaging with the digital world, as it shapes both rights and responsibilities in the online environment.

Full Article

Overview

Information technology law (cyberlaw) is a branch of law concerning computers and the Internet. While this branch of law was not needed in the past, in the twenty-first century, the use of computers, wireless technology, and the Internet brought new legal challenges that previous branches of law could not address.

When the Internet first became available to the public, slow data transfer speeds and physical access points significantly limited its usefulness. Despite these drawbacks, Internet access enabled people to communicate worldwide in real time. Experts at the time realized that in the future people would be able to access the Internet more easily—and they were right. Broadband Internet allowed users to stream video and quickly access data online. When wireless technology and smartphones became commonplace, people could easily access the Internet from various locations. By the 2010s, most individuals could fully access the Internet using their phones.

As technology improved, people were able to use the Internet for additional tasks. They could stream entertainment in real-time, do their banking from their phones, and video chat with those on the other side of the world. However, such technology had its drawbacks. People who struggled to use this new technology, such as many older people, found themselves significantly disadvantaged. Additionally, users who constantly used the Internet were sending more and more of their personal information through the digital world. Not all digital channels were safe or secure, and data theft was highly detrimental to victims. This affected information technology law, which had to address numerous important topics.

Jurisdiction became problematic because the law had to determine which court had the right to handle a particular case. For example, if a person who commits online fraud lives in one part of the country and a victim lives in another area, which court has jurisdiction over the case? Subject matter jurisdiction was also an important consideration. This refers to jurisdiction over the nature of a particular case.

The field of law required new rulings and had to reinterpret its existing rules to adapt to an ever-expanding digital environment. In this instance, courts examined Internet users’ personal dealings to decide if they had sufficient minimum contacts within a state to grant that state’s courts personal jurisdiction over them. However, every state has also written and enacted “long-arm” statutes, which allow a state to exercise personal jurisdiction against anyone who directly commits a crime against the people of this state.

A significant portion of information technology law has involved the adaptation of existing laws to a digital space. Most of the concepts involved in information technology law, such as jurisdiction, existed prior to the world’s transition to digital spaces. However, legal experts had to quickly reassess their existing definitions to decide how these laws applied to digital content.

This was true of intellectual property rights, which allow someone to retain ownership of a creative work. This includes images, videos, music, writing, and, in the twenty-first century, computer code. The Internet has made protecting intellectual property rights significantly more difficult than ever before. Concepts such as media piracy, meaning the unauthorized sale or distribution of work owned by others, quickly became problems in the digital world. In the past, media piracy did not pose widespread problems for artists, distributors, and companies. When physical media was required for the creation of pirated works, the process was much more difficult. For example, if someone sought to reproduce a book or an article without the consent or knowledge of the original author, he or she would have to create physical copies of that work.

It is far easier for criminals to intentionally violate the intellectual property rights of the owners of digital works than it was for physical works. Once a file is released onto the Internet, it is often impossible to have it removed. Files might be downloaded millions of times in a short timeframe, and experts have no efficient means of stopping that distribution. The development of peer-to-peer networks, which did not use any central servers for the widespread transferring of files, made the process of intellectual data theft even more difficult to stop. While those who perpetrate the infringement of intellectual property rights by illegally downloading or viewing media without compensating its owners may face stiff legal penalties, most will never be charged with a crime.

The Internet has allowed various new types of crime to emerge, many of which are similar to those that take place in the physical world. However, they utilize new tools to harm their victims. Though various types of fraud and theft took place before the invention of the Internet, the legal code of the pre-Internet world was unprepared for crimes like the development of ransomware. This type of malicious software locks down someone else’s computer, heavily restricting their access to their own data. It promises to release the data only if the computer user pays a large sum of money. As the malware installs, it encrypts files, making them difficult or impossible for even computer forensic professionals to recover.

Many criminals use the Internet to steal others’ personal information. They may execute phishing campaigns, meaning that they send out large numbers of unsolicited emails containing fake links. These links encourage users to log in to important websites, such as banks, but track any information that the users submit. If users fall for a phishing scam, they often give their important login information to the scammers, allowing them to sell the information to other criminals. Other types of common digital crimes include credit card fraud and data theft.

While most people use the communication tools made possible by information technology legitimately, some use them to harm others, which caused information technology law to evolve. For example, information technology enables online harassment, later called cyberbullying, in which criminals can torment victims across various digital platforms with just a smartphone. Whereas many children could escape traditional bullying by leaving school or avoiding bullies, children who fell victim to cyberbullying were at the mercy of online bullies any time they interacted with digital spaces. The legal concepts of slander, libel, and talking were quickly updated to account for the use of this new technology.

Applications

Information technology law is relevant to anyone who regularly interacts with the digital world. It is possible for individuals to break the law online without realizing they have committed a crime. This is especially relevant in the field of intellectual property rights. Some people may download and share an image, a text, or another form of media without the consent of the original author. However, they may not be aware that the original author does not allow for the distribution of the work. Though most people who commit such violations do not face significant consequences, some have faced stiff penalties.

The most famous cases of digital intellectual property theft occurred in the music industry. Many music artists made their living by selling physical and digital copies of their work, and most record labels used media sales to generate most of their profits. However, as people began using the Internet, they realized that they could easily upload their music for others to copy. This process circumvented the artists and record labels, cutting into their profits. One of the most infamous services, Napster, attracted millions of users. Napster declared bankruptcy in 2002 after losing many lawsuits.

In many instances, computer users were not just attracted by free music. They shared online content by illegally streaming and downloading it. It was more convenient for computer users to quickly download the content than to purchase media through reputable means. Additionally, most of the services that allow users to do this use peer-to-peer networks. These networks shared files by directly connecting users’ computers instead of using a centralized server. Decentralized networks, such as peer-to-peer networks, are significantly more difficult for authorities to shut down. To stop users from sharing content over the network, authorities must find a way to prohibit them from accessing it in the first place.

Some artists and record labels were frustrated with their sudden loss of profits and decided to track down and sue individual users for exorbitant sums. The artists and record labels thought that if they harshly punished a few users for downloading music, it would deter others from doing so. Some of the most famous artists to actively fight against music piracy included Metallica and Dr. Dre.

In 1999, the Recording Industry of America filed a lawsuit against Napster. However, though their lawsuit represented the intellectual property rights of many artists, some musicians felt personally victimized by the music-sharing service. When members of Metallica discovered that Napster had leaked an early release of one of their tracks and found that their entire catalog was available for free on Napster, they also decided to sue the service. Metallica sought damages of one-hundred-thousand dollars per instance of copyright infringement, totaling a minimum of ten million dollars. In 2001, a district judge released a preliminary injunction in favor of Metallica, ordering Napster to temporarily remove all Metallica songs from its service. Though Napster and Metallica eventually reached a settlement, it was blocked by a judge. Due to penalties from the lawsuit, Napster was forced to file for bankruptcy.

Other efforts at stopping piracy were more successful. The invention of convenient, affordable, and legal media streaming services significantly reduced the need for piracy. With convenient legal alternatives widely available, instances of digital media intellectual property theft and copyright infringement declined.

Viewpoints

In the twenty-first century, legal experts acknowledge the importance of keeping track of digital trends and the legal issues such trends may cause. However, most acknowledge that the legal world moves more slowly than the modern technological world. As technologies advance and new means of collecting and utilizing digital data are discovered, digital users will find more ways to circumvent the existing legal code. This forces legislatures to adapt to problems that are already occurring, ensuring that modern laws are one step behind emerging technological trends.

Experts have proposed several solutions for helping the law keep pace with new technologies. Some proposals have included the development of specialized governance coordinating committees to track the means by which most data is collected and used. Others have proposed the advancement of soft-law mechanisms, which allow for quasi-binding legal agreements between various parties. However, for difficulties that cannot be easily overcome, legislatures will be forced to continue to rely on existing laws at least temporarily.

Beginning with the 2016 US Presidential election, many forms of digital information were intentionally crafted or illegally obtained to influence its outcome. Some of this information is known to have originated with criminal actors outside of the United States. Other false content creators were homegrown. This trend continued in the 2020 national elections as well as in 2024. The potential negative impacts of falsified, inaccurate, or misleading information can be detrimental to a healthy, functioning democracy. Most harmful is that a fundamental pillar of democracy, perceptions of free and fair elections, is undermined. As much as this situation needed rectification, most preferably through the courts, there are many obstacles to doing so. In addition to the difficulties with prosecuting both non-state and state-sponsored criminal activities, many in the United States are conflicted over whether legal actions should be overshadowed by free speech concerns.

In 2018, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act established the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). This agency became responsible for protecting the nation's physical and cyber infrastructure. CISA set out in the 2020s to establish guidelines to require organizations to report cybersecurity incidents using the federal register, according to the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA).

In March 2024, the US Supreme Court heard arguments impacting whether government efforts to combat false internet-based content violated the First Amendment. Previously, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a judgment preventing the US government from soliciting assistance from social media companies and organizations. The underlying issue was whether individuals who proliferated false and damaging information concerning the COVID-19 pandemic could be subject to government restriction. A second question was whether social media companies, which are private businesses that host the opinions of users, are entitled to First Amendment protections.

As artificial intelligence evolved and cybercriminals gained access to increasingly sophisticated tools to carry out more complex acts, state legislatures attempted to keep pace. In 2025 alone, more than 800 bills or resolutions focused on cybersecurity were considered, resulting in the enactment of 200 bills and 30 resolutions across 44 states.


Bibliography

9 most common computer and internet cyber crimes. (2021). EN Kanter. https://www.enkanter.com/article/9-most-common-computer-and-internet-cyber-crimes

Cyberlaw and cybercrimes. (2021). Lawshelf.com. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://lawshelf.com/videocoursesmoduleview/cyberlaw-and-cybercrimes--module-3-of-5-

Cybersecurity 2025 legislation. (2025, October 10). National Conference of State Legislatures. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://www.ncsl.org/technology-and-communication/cybersecurity-2025-legislation

Different types of intellectual property rights and why they are important . (2022, January 13) InQuartik. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://www.inquartik.com/blog/basic-intellectual-property-rights

Introduction to cyberlaw. (2021). Lawshelf.com. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://lawshelf.com/videocoursesmoduleview/introduction-to-cyberlaw--module-1-of-5

McIntyre, Hugh. (2018, March 21). The piracy sites that nearly destroyed the music industry: What happened to Napster?. Forbes. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2018/03/21/what-happened-to-the-piracy-sites-that-nearly-destroyed-the-music-industry-part-1-napster/?sh=2e723f602293

Pazzanese. C. (2021, August 11). How the government can support a free press and cut disinformation. The Harvard Gazette. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/08/martha-minow-looks-at-ways-government-can-stop-disinformation

Totenberg, N. (2024, March 18). Supreme Court examines whether government can combat disinformation online. NPR. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://www.npr.org/2024/03/18/1238122337/supreme-court-social-media-disinformation-first-amendment

Full Article

Overview

Information technology law (cyberlaw) is a branch of law concerning computers and the Internet. While this branch of law was not needed in the past, in the twenty-first century, the use of computers, wireless technology, and the Internet brought new legal challenges that previous branches of law could not address.

When the Internet first became available to the public, slow data transfer speeds and physical access points significantly limited its usefulness. Despite these drawbacks, Internet access enabled people to communicate worldwide in real time. Experts at the time realized that in the future people would be able to access the Internet more easily—and they were right. Broadband Internet allowed users to stream video and quickly access data online. When wireless technology and smartphones became commonplace, people could easily access the Internet from various locations. By the 2010s, most individuals could fully access the Internet using their phones.

As technology improved, people were able to use the Internet for additional tasks. They could stream entertainment in real-time, do their banking from their phones, and video chat with those on the other side of the world. However, such technology had its drawbacks. People who struggled to use this new technology, such as many older people, found themselves significantly disadvantaged. Additionally, users who constantly used the Internet were sending more and more of their personal information through the digital world. Not all digital channels were safe or secure, and data theft was highly detrimental to victims. This affected information technology law, which had to address numerous important topics.

Jurisdiction became problematic because the law had to determine which court had the right to handle a particular case. For example, if a person who commits online fraud lives in one part of the country and a victim lives in another area, which court has jurisdiction over the case? Subject matter jurisdiction was also an important consideration. This refers to jurisdiction over the nature of a particular case.

The field of law required new rulings and had to reinterpret its existing rules to adapt to an ever-expanding digital environment. In this instance, courts examined Internet users’ personal dealings to decide if they had sufficient minimum contacts within a state to grant that state’s courts personal jurisdiction over them. However, every state has also written and enacted “long-arm” statutes, which allow a state to exercise personal jurisdiction against anyone who directly commits a crime against the people of this state.

A significant portion of information technology law has involved the adaptation of existing laws to a digital space. Most of the concepts involved in information technology law, such as jurisdiction, existed prior to the world’s transition to digital spaces. However, legal experts had to quickly reassess their existing definitions to decide how these laws applied to digital content.

This was true of intellectual property rights, which allow someone to retain ownership of a creative work. This includes images, videos, music, writing, and, in the twenty-first century, computer code. The Internet has made protecting intellectual property rights significantly more difficult than ever before. Concepts such as media piracy, meaning the unauthorized sale or distribution of work owned by others, quickly became problems in the digital world. In the past, media piracy did not pose widespread problems for artists, distributors, and companies. When physical media was required for the creation of pirated works, the process was much more difficult. For example, if someone sought to reproduce a book or an article without the consent or knowledge of the original author, he or she would have to create physical copies of that work.

It is far easier for criminals to intentionally violate the intellectual property rights of the owners of digital works than it was for physical works. Once a file is released onto the Internet, it is often impossible to have it removed. Files might be downloaded millions of times in a short timeframe, and experts have no efficient means of stopping that distribution. The development of peer-to-peer networks, which did not use any central servers for the widespread transferring of files, made the process of intellectual data theft even more difficult to stop. While those who perpetrate the infringement of intellectual property rights by illegally downloading or viewing media without compensating its owners may face stiff legal penalties, most will never be charged with a crime.

The Internet has allowed various new types of crime to emerge, many of which are similar to those that take place in the physical world. However, they utilize new tools to harm their victims. Though various types of fraud and theft took place before the invention of the Internet, the legal code of the pre-Internet world was unprepared for crimes like the development of ransomware. This type of malicious software locks down someone else’s computer, heavily restricting their access to their own data. It promises to release the data only if the computer user pays a large sum of money. As the malware installs, it encrypts files, making them difficult or impossible for even computer forensic professionals to recover.

Many criminals use the Internet to steal others’ personal information. They may execute phishing campaigns, meaning that they send out large numbers of unsolicited emails containing fake links. These links encourage users to log in to important websites, such as banks, but track any information that the users submit. If users fall for a phishing scam, they often give their important login information to the scammers, allowing them to sell the information to other criminals. Other types of common digital crimes include credit card fraud and data theft.

While most people use the communication tools made possible by information technology legitimately, some use them to harm others, which caused information technology law to evolve. For example, information technology enables online harassment, later called cyberbullying, in which criminals can torment victims across various digital platforms with just a smartphone. Whereas many children could escape traditional bullying by leaving school or avoiding bullies, children who fell victim to cyberbullying were at the mercy of online bullies any time they interacted with digital spaces. The legal concepts of slander, libel, and talking were quickly updated to account for the use of this new technology.

Applications

Information technology law is relevant to anyone who regularly interacts with the digital world. It is possible for individuals to break the law online without realizing they have committed a crime. This is especially relevant in the field of intellectual property rights. Some people may download and share an image, a text, or another form of media without the consent of the original author. However, they may not be aware that the original author does not allow for the distribution of the work. Though most people who commit such violations do not face significant consequences, some have faced stiff penalties.

The most famous cases of digital intellectual property theft occurred in the music industry. Many music artists made their living by selling physical and digital copies of their work, and most record labels used media sales to generate most of their profits. However, as people began using the Internet, they realized that they could easily upload their music for others to copy. This process circumvented the artists and record labels, cutting into their profits. One of the most infamous services, Napster, attracted millions of users. Napster declared bankruptcy in 2002 after losing many lawsuits.

In many instances, computer users were not just attracted by free music. They shared online content by illegally streaming and downloading it. It was more convenient for computer users to quickly download the content than to purchase media through reputable means. Additionally, most of the services that allow users to do this use peer-to-peer networks. These networks shared files by directly connecting users’ computers instead of using a centralized server. Decentralized networks, such as peer-to-peer networks, are significantly more difficult for authorities to shut down. To stop users from sharing content over the network, authorities must find a way to prohibit them from accessing it in the first place.

Some artists and record labels were frustrated with their sudden loss of profits and decided to track down and sue individual users for exorbitant sums. The artists and record labels thought that if they harshly punished a few users for downloading music, it would deter others from doing so. Some of the most famous artists to actively fight against music piracy included Metallica and Dr. Dre.

In 1999, the Recording Industry of America filed a lawsuit against Napster. However, though their lawsuit represented the intellectual property rights of many artists, some musicians felt personally victimized by the music-sharing service. When members of Metallica discovered that Napster had leaked an early release of one of their tracks and found that their entire catalog was available for free on Napster, they also decided to sue the service. Metallica sought damages of one-hundred-thousand dollars per instance of copyright infringement, totaling a minimum of ten million dollars. In 2001, a district judge released a preliminary injunction in favor of Metallica, ordering Napster to temporarily remove all Metallica songs from its service. Though Napster and Metallica eventually reached a settlement, it was blocked by a judge. Due to penalties from the lawsuit, Napster was forced to file for bankruptcy.

Other efforts at stopping piracy were more successful. The invention of convenient, affordable, and legal media streaming services significantly reduced the need for piracy. With convenient legal alternatives widely available, instances of digital media intellectual property theft and copyright infringement declined.

Viewpoints

In the twenty-first century, legal experts acknowledge the importance of keeping track of digital trends and the legal issues such trends may cause. However, most acknowledge that the legal world moves more slowly than the modern technological world. As technologies advance and new means of collecting and utilizing digital data are discovered, digital users will find more ways to circumvent the existing legal code. This forces legislatures to adapt to problems that are already occurring, ensuring that modern laws are one step behind emerging technological trends.

Experts have proposed several solutions for helping the law keep pace with new technologies. Some proposals have included the development of specialized governance coordinating committees to track the means by which most data is collected and used. Others have proposed the advancement of soft-law mechanisms, which allow for quasi-binding legal agreements between various parties. However, for difficulties that cannot be easily overcome, legislatures will be forced to continue to rely on existing laws at least temporarily.

Beginning with the 2016 US Presidential election, many forms of digital information were intentionally crafted or illegally obtained to influence its outcome. Some of this information is known to have originated with criminal actors outside of the United States. Other false content creators were homegrown. This trend continued in the 2020 national elections as well as in 2024. The potential negative impacts of falsified, inaccurate, or misleading information can be detrimental to a healthy, functioning democracy. Most harmful is that a fundamental pillar of democracy, perceptions of free and fair elections, is undermined. As much as this situation needed rectification, most preferably through the courts, there are many obstacles to doing so. In addition to the difficulties with prosecuting both non-state and state-sponsored criminal activities, many in the United States are conflicted over whether legal actions should be overshadowed by free speech concerns.

In 2018, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act established the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). This agency became responsible for protecting the nation's physical and cyber infrastructure. CISA set out in the 2020s to establish guidelines to require organizations to report cybersecurity incidents using the federal register, according to the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA).

In March 2024, the US Supreme Court heard arguments impacting whether government efforts to combat false internet-based content violated the First Amendment. Previously, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a judgment preventing the US government from soliciting assistance from social media companies and organizations. The underlying issue was whether individuals who proliferated false and damaging information concerning the COVID-19 pandemic could be subject to government restriction. A second question was whether social media companies, which are private businesses that host the opinions of users, are entitled to First Amendment protections.

As artificial intelligence evolved and cybercriminals gained access to increasingly sophisticated tools to carry out more complex acts, state legislatures attempted to keep pace. In 2025 alone, more than 800 bills or resolutions focused on cybersecurity were considered, resulting in the enactment of 200 bills and 30 resolutions across 44 states.


Bibliography

9 most common computer and internet cyber crimes. (2021). EN Kanter. https://www.enkanter.com/article/9-most-common-computer-and-internet-cyber-crimes

Cyberlaw and cybercrimes. (2021). Lawshelf.com. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://lawshelf.com/videocoursesmoduleview/cyberlaw-and-cybercrimes--module-3-of-5-

Cybersecurity 2025 legislation. (2025, October 10). National Conference of State Legislatures. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://www.ncsl.org/technology-and-communication/cybersecurity-2025-legislation

Different types of intellectual property rights and why they are important . (2022, January 13) InQuartik. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://www.inquartik.com/blog/basic-intellectual-property-rights

Introduction to cyberlaw. (2021). Lawshelf.com. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://lawshelf.com/videocoursesmoduleview/introduction-to-cyberlaw--module-1-of-5

McIntyre, Hugh. (2018, March 21). The piracy sites that nearly destroyed the music industry: What happened to Napster?. Forbes. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2018/03/21/what-happened-to-the-piracy-sites-that-nearly-destroyed-the-music-industry-part-1-napster/?sh=2e723f602293

Pazzanese. C. (2021, August 11). How the government can support a free press and cut disinformation. The Harvard Gazette. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/08/martha-minow-looks-at-ways-government-can-stop-disinformation

Totenberg, N. (2024, March 18). Supreme Court examines whether government can combat disinformation online. NPR. Retrieved January 29, 2026, from https://www.npr.org/2024/03/18/1238122337/supreme-court-social-media-disinformation-first-amendment

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