Cyber Law

Cyber-Bullying is the harassment & humiliation of one child by the hands of another child over the internet.

It can be completed using verbal or written assaults or by posting images, real or fabricated using graphic software, to humiliate, degrade, embarrass, or harass your children and cause emotional trauma.

There are ways to prevent Cyber-Bullying and if it is already present there are very effective solutions to Cyber-Bullying.

Statistics show 1 out of 3 children experience internet harassment. The problem is less than half will inform their parent about the problem.

It is usually initiated against your son or daughter by someone who knows them, possibly a school-mate.

The internet bully is usually smart enough to use a fictitious profile to avoid you knowing who they are.

There are many ways to prevent this as a parent to help protect your child from this very serious problem.

Here are some solutions to internet harassment:

*Make sure the computer your kid uses is in a public area of your home where you can help supervise online sessions.

*Instruct your Sibling to never post their real name or photo in their profile and to make their profile private so that they cannot be identified.

*Teach them never to give out any private information over the internet.

*Show them how to use options in the forum to block posts from anyone they find to be objectionable.

*Tell them to delete suspicious email without opening it.

*Make sure they never share their passwords or personal info with anyone.

*Stress to your child to inform you immediately if an incident of Cyber-Bullying occurs.

Internet harassment is an extremely serious risk to your child's safety.

Bullying, online or offline, can cause your son or daughter to become seriously depressed and suffer a loss of self esteem or self worth.

The number of suicides among young children and teenagers due to the devastating effects of bullying has been on the rise.

It is reported that every half hour, 48 kids a day, commit suicide as a result of bullying (Bullycide) or Cyber-Bullying (Cyber Bullycide).

19,000 children each year attempts to commit suicide as a result of the tormenting by an online bully.

If you notice signs that your son or daughter might be struggling with the effects of being bullied you need to take it very seriously and take immediate action.

Do not hesitate to get in touch with a mental health specialist.

If you know of a bullying incident do not hesitate to contact school officials, the internet provider of services if it was on the net, and law enforcement agencies for assistance.

It does not have to be a long term occurrence for serious damage to be done. Just one or two sessions of "bully-like" behavior can cause serious emotional damage to your child.

Parents must be pro active in the prevention of Cyber-Bullying!

Unlike any other hosting, adult hosting is a hosting that requires more attention to due to its nature to offend cyber laws. There are more and more adult websites in the internet today and many have applied certain measurements to keep underage visitors from entering. This is because if they do not do so, they will be in trouble with the law.

To begin, you will need to look for a hosting provider that accepts adult content. Once you found it, you have to decide on the amount of resources that you want like the amount of storage, bandwidth and so on. Also, you need to decide how much you are willing to spend on your hosting.

As it is different from other websites, here are a few areas that you need to pay attention to if you want to start an adult content website:

Bandwidth - This type of website relies on graphics to attract their visitors. Therefore, you need a huge amount of bandwidth because you will be having a lot of content that consists of videos, flash and images. Also, if you are planning for a membership website that allows your users to download videos form you site, you will need the bandwidth to be able to support it.

Disk storage - As you will be uploading plenty of content. You need a huge amount of disk space to hold all those files. Files like videos and images takes up lots of space and it is important for you website to be able to support the amount of files you have. The way your website look will determine whether your visitors will stay or go. Therefore, having more images will help you to keep you visitors staying a little longer.

So, having mentioned the things above, a good hosting solution for an adult website would be a dedicated hosting. It has the ability to host an adult website because of its flexibility and power. The resources that you need could be obtained with a dedicated serve plus great support from the provider for dedicated server customers.

A lot of people have sudden moments of inspiration, coming up with great ideas for businesses, scientific inventions, games, mobile applications and so on. Some of them may not be feasible, but a lot of ideas may actually work. If you come up with something that you feel can make you a lot of money, how do make sure that the world knows it is your idea? How do you ensure that your idea or invention is not stolen or copied by anybody else?

There are lawyers who will file a document stating that the idea or invention is entirely yours, and that anyone else who steals or copies it is liable to be taken to court. You will find companies that will provide attorneys to file patents, trademarks and copyrights. These applications can be filed by your attorney of choice at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the USCO (United Stated Copyright Office) and different other trademark and patent offices around the world.

If you have an invention that you feel will make a difference, you can get it patented. Patents can essentially be divided as provisional and non-provisional applications. If you contact one of these companies, they will send a licensed patent attorney, who is specifically trained to file patent applications in the United States. The process will begin with an initial consultation which is free of cost. This consultation will be to determine whether or not you should begin with a patent search. A patent search involves browsing through the archives of patents to find out how many ideas similar to yours have been patented in the past. After this, you can go ahead with the actual filing.

A trademark is basically a word, phrase or symbol which manufacturers or sellers use to make their products unique, and differentiate their company from others. You can protect the symbol or phrase of your company, and apart from this sometimes there are other distinguishing features like the color and packaging of a product. You can contact a law firm to find out if any of these identifiers can be protected, in the case of your particular product.

A copyright involves the protection of all original works of authorship, which are fixed in a tangible medium. This includes both published and unpublished dramatic, musical, artistic and literary work, and some other intellectual works. When you file a copyright, you are protecting only the expression and not the subject matter. For example, say you are filing for a copyright for the photograph of a copy machine. This prevents others from copying the photograph, but to prevent the copying of the machine itself, the inventor of the machine will have to file a patent. If you contact the right firm, they will send over an attorney who will be able to advise you as to what form of protection will suit your requirements the most.

There are so many other ways of protecting your ideas and works. There is cyber law, which involves a number of issues like credit card fraud, identity theft, slander and libel. Attorneys handle all these cases and more.

With a brand new year upon us, experts are concerned. Very concerned. It was reported last week that British law enforcement expects internet and cyber crime to surpass traditional crime rates for the first time in British history. Law enforcement officials lamented that while their jobs used to consist of apprehending thieves attempting to rob cars or vandalize homes, they are now faced with the seemingly inordinate task of detaining criminals from thousands of miles away. Criminals engaged in complex internet hacking and identity theft schemes.

Almost all U.K. precincts report an upsurge of internet and cyber-savvy crimes. Most consider spyware and "malware" to be the most significant types of attacks, and the most likely cause devastating identity theft on unsuspecting victims. Further, many of these victims do not have protection and anti-theft software in place to protect themselves from attack, further encouraging criminals and frustrating law enforcement. The increased use of smartphones and iPads has furthered the problem as well.

The smartphone craze has stimulated the hysteria over cyber crime and victimization. Law enforcement all over the world reports increased smartphone theft, much associated with violent robberies and assaults. In the U.K., a group has been set up to help combat the problem known as the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum. The Forum urges smartphone users to stay aware when using mass public transit, the most common place for theft. The scariest aspect of smartphone crime is what can happen after the theft. Many times, thieves charge sellers in Eastern Europe, Algeria, Morocco or West Africa thousands of dollars for a smartphone filled with sensitive data. Thereafter, sellers can use the data to steal the identity of the victim and wreak havoc on his credit and identity.

With so much cyber and smartphone crime around us, 2011 must bring an increased awareness and fervor for security. London-based Snuko, P.L.C. has offered clients across the globe the opportunity to secure their phones and laptops. Snuko's smartphone products allow for remote location of a stolen item and total lock-out of unauthorized users. The inexpensive product can assure that victims of violent crime can mitigate their losses by recovering their stolen property before it is sent overseas and virtually lost forever.

Attention to protection constant awareness of threats could help lead to 2011 being the first year to see a decline in internet and cyber crime in recent memory. With just a little extra caution, internet and smartphone users can rest assured their identity will be safe in the new year and for many more to come.

With the current advancement in the communications world, cyber bullying also has started to emerge from behind the safety of Internet anonymity.

Cyber bullying crime is the new face of traditional bullying in which a student threatens another with physical abuse, invades their personal e-mail account and leaks the private information outside, posts denigrating remarks about them or their digitally altered images with obscene features - and all these are done through the technical media, such as Internet or mobile phones. Cyber bullying is different from cyber stalking which characterizes the harassment of an adult by an adult. When a child posts something disparaging about the school authority or a teacher, it is not cyber bullying. Repeated harassment with unsolicited mails and messages also counts among the crimes.

The key explanation for cyber bullying crime becoming rampant has more than one reason. An individual can remain anonymous on the Internet without divulging a single detail of hi/her whereabouts. This lets the culprit escape the crime scene easily. The advantage of staying anonymous and invisible while harassing someone allows the criminals to attack someone much stronger than them. Moreover, perhaps the biggest loophole of the web media is that it is just impossible to stop any defamatory stuff from circulating of the world wide web once it is posted. Therefore, even if the perpetrator is caught at a later date, considerable damage has already taken place by then through the global access to any downloadable information.

The menace of cyber bullying crime often leaves a deep scar in the victim's mind that can not be erased. Teenagers experiencing bullying often become life long sufferers of depression, lack of self esteem and trust, poor concentration and worsened relationships with friends and family. Some even take to ending their own life, being unable to bear the ignominy any more. While many states are now coming up with whole new sets of cyber crime laws to eliminate this menace, parents and the school authority should also come forward to help the victimized students and take stern action against the rowdy students. Parents should keep a vigilant eye on the sites their children visit and also explain the danger of revealing personal information on the social networking sites to them. An unfortunate incident of cyber bullying should immediately be brought to the notice of the local authority.

In today's Web 2.0 world, businesses face new ways to broadcast their presence and advertise their goods and services, and the Internet is an effective, far-reaching tool for brand marketing. As businesses explore new ways to advertise online, it has become apparent that brand marketing has transcended buying ad space on popular search engines and other informational sites to actively engaging with their consumers in conversations and sharing information. Now businesses must embrace social networking as a marketing strategy.

Social networking sites have continual membership growth. Facebook, for example, is estimated to have more than 350 million active users. Twitter now boasts around 32.1 million users. MySpace attracts about 115 million people to its site each month. With such a wide consumer base at the ready, how have businesses used these social networking sites to their advantage? As businesses move into the cyber frontier, how they protect their brands is critical. To help businesses police their brands and leverage the power of social media, these social networking giants have put mechanisms in place to help guard against fraud, impersonation, and rights infringement. After all, social networking strategies only work if everyone plays by the same rules.

Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Facebook, the largest social networking site, is a good example of how social networking sites have become an effective marketing tool for businesses. Facebook has developed its website to allow for Pages, customizable mini-sites geared toward organizations, products, or public personalities, to join the conversation with Facebook users. A Page essentially allows fans to become brand advocates. It allows users to post comments, view news and information about a certain product, and learn more about a company. Businesses have jumped on this viral form of advertising.

Facebook now has more than 1.6 million active Pages. More than 700,000 local businesses have created Pages to reach their target demographics. In fact, it is estimated that Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans. The Page form on Facebook requires the creator of the Page to be the official representative of an organization, business, celebrity, or brand. As such, the representative becomes the Page Organizer, able to add and remove content, manage the information appearing on the site, and increase the viral effects of the advertising. Each Page (depending on the type of organization selected) comes equipped with pre-selected formatting options, such as tabs for Discussion Boards, Events, Information about the organization, and Photos. The Info tab, for example, lets you share key information about your company, such as Website, mission, overview of the business, and products. Fans can post comments on a company's wall, view videos, and read about upcoming events or promotions. Every time a Page has activity, such as postings or announcements, this activity becomes visible on the NewsFeed. Information about your fans regarding their activities on your Page also becomes available for viewing by their friends, thus opening the door for others to become a fan of your Page.

This is what causes the viral nature of advertising on Facebook. Businesses can capitalize on this market and gain valuable information from tools such as Facebook Insights, which, includes data on fans' engagement with posts from a business's Page. Businesses have also "opened up shop" on Twitter and MySpace. Some businesses have launched official Twitter accounts and allow (or require) employees to post daily or weekly Tweets, often about promotions or events.

What's interesting about these sites is that there isn't a filter that blocks out negative or unflattering information. As such, questions arise as to what a business can do once the angry "fan" or follower posts negative comments on a wall, if a disgruntled former employee opens a page in your name, or if someone poses as a representative of your business claiming your company name or brand as their username.

Social Networking Sites and Their Terms of Use

The simplest and most cost-effective way to protect a brand on social networking sites is to utilize the site's dispute resolutions mechanism. Most of the social networking giants have procedures in place for submitting complaints about copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and privacy concerns.

Facebook: The Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities asks users to agree that they are the rightful owners of all the content and information they post on Facebook. They are also asked to agree that they will not create accounts for anyone without their permission. Users are not allowed to post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates other's rights or otherwise violates the law and Facebook reserves the right to take down content or remove a webpage that is found to be infringing on those rights. Facebook provides its users with tools to help address intellectual property issues. Most of these tools are forms that are submitted electronically.

Twitter: The Twitter rules specifically state that they don't monitor user's content and will not censor such content except in limited circumstances. Twitter does not allow impersonation of others that does or is intended to confuse, mislead, or deceive others. However, ways for monitoring such impersonation has proved to be a problem for Twitter since their biggest concern is fake accounts. Twitter also reserves the right to reclaim usernames on behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal right or trademarks in those user names. To prevent name squatting, Twitter suspends accounts that are inactive for more than six months.

Business owners using social networking sites would be wise to read the terms of use to be well-versed in protective actions these companies have put in place to help police brands. It's a new marketing world, and greater tools can lead to greater risks if a business isn't careful. Just as businesses benefit from social networking sites, the social networks rely on businesses to leverage their power. It's a symbiotic relationship-and must be protected.

The internet has gone a long way to increasing opportunities for people with disabilities. Today, one does not even need to leave the home to purchase a television, furniture or even a wheelchair. Websites like eBay, Craigslist and Amazon have made it extremely easy for anyone to make a purchase over the internet. So easy in fact that many individuals do not consider the possibility of a fraudulent transaction. However, it does happen. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), it received 206,884 complaint submissions for the year 2007. Just slightly lower (by 0.3%) than the year before, which was 207,492.

IC3 reports that 90,008 complaints of crime to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The majority of cases referred alleged fraud and involved a financial loss on the part of the person making the complaint. The total dollar amount lost from these cases was $239.09 million with a median dollar loss of $680.00 per complaint. This was an increase from $198.44 million in total reported losses in 2006. Therefore, although the number of cases reported went down slightly, the actual cost to the person who suffers a lost went up.

The WC3 Statistical Breakdown
Perpetrators were predominantly male (75.8%) and half resided in one of the following states: California, Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Georgia. The majority of reported perpetrators were from the United States. However, a significant number of perpetrators also were located in United Kingdom, Nigeria, Canada, Romania, and Italy.

Among complainants, 57.6% were male, nearly half were between the ages of 30 and 50 and one-third resided in one of the four most populated states: California, Florida, Texas, and New York. While most were from the United States, IC3 received a number of complaints from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Mexico.

Males complainants lost more money than females (ratio of $1.67 to every $1.00 lost per female). This may be a function of both online purchasing differences by gender and the type of fraudulent schemes by which the individuals were victimized.
Electronic mail (e-mail) (73.6%) and web pages (32.7%) were the two primary mechanisms by which the fraudulent contact took place.

The Agency claims that recent high activity scams in 2007 were those involving pets, checks, spam, and online dating sites, all of which have proven effective as criminal devices in the hands of fraudsters.

Who is WC3?
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).

IC3's mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes

How do I file a complaint?

IC3 accepts online Internet crime complaints from either the person who believes they were defrauded or from a third party to the complainant. We can best process your complaint if we receive accurate and complete information from you. Therefore, we request that you provide the following information when filing a complaint:

- Your name
- Your mailing address
- Your telephone number
- The name, address, telephone number, and Web address, if available, of the individual or organization you believe defrauded you.

Specific details on how, why, and when you believe you were defrauded. Any other relevant information you believe is necessary to support your complaint.

File a Complaint at http://www.ic3.gov

Note The Following:

• Because IC3 is a partnership the proccesed complaints are forwarded to Federal, State, Local and International law enforcement agencies for action.
• It is at the discretion of receiving agency as to what type of action to take.
• Filing a complaint with IC3 does not mean that your credit card companies or banks have been notified of fradulent charges. It is your responsibility to notify your credit card company or bank directly.
• IC3 does not guarantee that information submitted to authorities on your behalf will remain confidential. The state that it depends on the State or Local laws.

Today I'm stepping out on to the cyber high-wire.
I'm performing a high-risk blogging manoeuvre.
No safety net.
No cyber-harness.

I'm going to write a brief opinion piece on the Law of Attraction (LOA).
Possibly a no-win situation for me.
Aah well.
Advocates (of the concept) will disagree with me.
(I'm okay with that... as long as you're okay with me thinking differently to you).
And opponents are already with me.

I personally think the LOA should be re-named the Law of Distraction (as the title of my post suggests) as it (in my opinion) actually distracts people from change principles which actually work.
(Just lost half my readers).

Firstly, I am not a vocal opponent of the LOA (as such), in that, I have never written or spoken publicly about it.. but I am a seeker of the truth... and it is my belief that it (the LOA) may not be the 'answer' so many believe it to be.

When it comes to creating forever results and believing in something (which we all want), I want proof, I want consistent evidence, I want impartial analysis, I want large-scale, irrefutable results over an extended period of time and I'd prefer someone who's not trying to make money through the peddling of this or that particular philosophy or program (to be the person doing the talking).

So why am I doing this post?
Clearly, I'm a masochist.
Who wants to be popular anyway?
It's overrated.
I sat back for a while (about a year) and observed the fervour surrounding the LOA... and while I get some of the thinking (no, I don't disagree with everything), I have a few issues (no, not those issues... other issues) to discuss, points to make and questions to ask.

So let's put a ripple (or tidal wave) in the personal development pond and see what it's about.

Note (2): Yes, this is an open forum for you to voice your thoughts.. just keep it civil, nice and constructive and we can all explore (debate, argue) together.
Happily.
We don't all have to agree.. (that's the beauty of being a grown-up) we just have to live on the same planet.
And be nice to each other.
Even though... we have different beliefs.
Hmm, maybe we should tell our leaders that?
Wanna join my political party?
Me either.
By the way, I love a healthy, good-spirited debate... but not some inane verbal attack from a bitter, twisted, angry zealot who simply wants to impose his or her opinion on the rest of us.

Which leads me to my next comment....

What I am about to write are my thoughts and opinions only... don't get offended, defensive or angry (well, I'd suggest you don't anyway).
Feel free to agree, disagree or stop reading at any stage...
Sometimes it ain't about right or wrong; it's about what we think, believe and choose.
Let's commence boys and girls....

While there are volumes of information on the LOA, the following is an assortment from a range of sources and seems to be indicative of the general thinking, principles and beliefs... and there's also some thoughts, suggestions and questions from me thrown in (of course).
The stuff in blue (or purple... I'm not sure!) is me.
(Probably woulda figured that out all by yerself).

Some Definitions of the LOA:
(1)People experience the corresponding manifestations of their predominant thoughts.
I think this is a fancy schmancy way of saying "you get what you mostly think about"... gotta make it sound like pseudo-science though. I could give SO many examples of people focusing on (the attainment of) certain things for years.. and never getting them... but do I really need to?
Nup.

(2)People have direct control over reality and their lives through thought alone.
Mmm.. surely at some stage WHAT WE DO is gonna have some impact on our reality?
Thought ALONE... don't think so.
It's an ingredient... but it ain't the whole recipe.

(3) A person's thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, beliefs and actions are said to attract corresponding positive and negative experiences "through the resonance of their energetic vibration."
I'm a scientist (a crap one admittedly), so I've explored this a little... and nobody can tell me how the resonance of an individuals 'energetic vibration' (which apparently occurs when they focus on stuff) can help them lose weight as they sit on the couch, while simultaneously inhaling beer and donuts.
Stupidly, I thought losing weight (for example) may involve getting off the couch and at some stage, expending some energy.
Thought it may have something to do with behaviour not JUST thoughts.

(4) The "law of attraction" states "you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny."
I wonder how the billions of people who live on less than a dollar a day feel about this ideology... no wonder those LOA workshops never took off in the Sudan.
"C'mon you guys over there in that mud hut with no food... your attitude and your thinking is holding you back.... stop limiting yourselves with your crappy mindset!"
"Stop it with those negative thoughts."
If you think I'm being insensitive, how do you think they (people in the Sudan) would feel about someone telling them that their thoughts are responsible for their reality?

LOA Principles:
(1) Know what one wants and ask the universe for it. (The "universe" is mentioned broadly, stating that it can be anything from a god to an unknown source of energy).
Okay... I want to be able to run a hundred metres in nine seconds (a world record)... the fact that I'm fat, slow, forty three and don't train for the event shouldn't be a problem... the only thing which might get in my way is my negative energy... (and I thought it would be my hamstrings).

(2) Feel and behave as if the object of one's desire is on its way.
Hmmm, let's say the object of one's (such a funny word... I sound like the queen) desire is to be a rock star and right now I'm flipping burgers for seven bucks an hour.
(1) As long as I'm working at Big Sam's Diner, I'm never gonna feel like Bono (good in theory, stupid in practice)... but I need to keep working there 'cause right now I'm not a rock star and.. I need the money.
(2) If I walk around behaving like a rock star.. I'm probably gonna get punched in the head by someone who doesn't share my reality.
(3) Perhaps I actually need to get off my ass, practice my music, develop some skills and do some work.
(4) Perhaps I'm never gonna be a rock star 'cause I don't have any musical ability.

Just a thought.

(3) Be open to receiving it.
I'm open to creating it, chasing it, working for it... not so open to sitting on my ass and waiting for it to knock on my front door.... call me old-fashioned.

"Er.. hello Craig, it's the universe here... I'm at the front door with that tropical island and that incredible singing voice you wanted.. let me in..."

(4) Proponents say that by abiding by these, and avoiding "negative" thoughts, the Universe will manifest a person's desires.
My experience tells me that (by and large) the only person/thing that will create forever positive change in my life is ME... yes, thinking plays a role but typically it's more about my actions, my life choices, my ability to persevere and deal with discomfort, my ability to adapt and... my drive to create something from nothing.

Some quotes from LOA websites:
(1) "The Law of Attraction is fun to learn and use because you are always watching, waiting expectantly for your desires to manifest. You can deliberately use this law to create your future!"
Part of the appeal (in my opinion) of the LOA is the whole notion of how easy and fun the process is.
Who wants to buy hard work, self-control and discipline when the universe can manifest your desires while you pull your nose hairs?
Easy (fun, quick, painless, convenient) is what people want to buy.
Don't believe me?... look at how weight-loss and fitness products are marketed.
Look at how money making schemes are sold.
I don't like waiting for things to manifest.. I like creating.

(2) "You get what you put your energy and focus on, whether wanted or unwanted."
I know plenty of people who have focused on finding Mr or Mrs right for years... if only they'd lose fifty pounds, get a job, change their crappy attitude, use a mouth wash and stop whining.
But what do I know?

(3) "A major factor behind this universal law is the energy and vibrations of our emotions and feelings. Any thought you may have, when combined with emotion, vibrates out from you to the universe and will attract back what you want. You can leave all the details to the universe. Let the universe figure out the method of delivery, when you will receive it, etc. Now all you have to do is Allow It."
Crap.
Sorry.. couldn't help myself.
(I'd been so grown-up too).

In the last month I've (did I mention I'm back in black now... hey, isn't that a song?) spoken to a bunch of people who tell me they have no plan and no idea how they will achieve their goals... but know they will (achieve their goals) because "their thoughts alone will attract whatever it is they desire"... they just need to put "that energy" out there at "it (their desired outcomes) will come to them".
When I ask them for more of an explanation, one of three things happen:

(1) They say they don't know how it will happen and they don't need to... just need to allow it.

(2 ) They get very defensive.

(3) They get aggressive, grumpy or critical of non-supporters.

So... like many Personal Development philosophies or ideologies, I guess the underlying motivation for any individual to embrace the LOA is to create positive change in an area or areas of their life (I think both sides of the fence will agree with this).
We all have this in common; the desire to create positive change... to have more... whatever 'more' is for us (peace, fun, love, money, power, recognition, happiness... and so on).

I guess it's a matter of us finding what really works.
For us.
I know what works for me and the people I work with... but that's my truth.

When you do business you do not earn money whereas you generate money. You are responsible for the earnings of many people in a way you provide for the bread and butter of many houses. When you take responsibility for so many people you need to be linear with respect to rules and regulations. In fact you need to be adept at so many things only then can you sail smoothly.

You need to be a juggler who can juggle two or three skills at a time. You need to know the tax, law, sales, marketing, purchasing, inventory etc. For all this you need to know the law. You need to be bound to law and be adept at it. Business lawyer if you appoint then he can ease much of your load and give you some relief. Business lawyer is a very broad term though.

Legality is the back bone of any business. You need to take care of many aspects as a legal advisor. Let us see some of them in short

1) Property acquisition--first and foremost the business property whether bought or rented must be legally viable. The appropriate documents are made by the business lawyer.

2) Legal documentation-the business certification required for its running is bone by the business lawyers.

3) Patent-if you require taking a patent for your product then business lawyer advices you the legal proceedings.

4) International standardization certificate-lawyers help you in getting the standardization certificates.

5) Contracts-job conditions and contracts between the employers and employees are done by business lawyers. Breach of contract is dealt with by them.

6) Partnership deals-again chalked out by the lawyers. The clauses of partnership chalked out by them.

7) HR(human resource)-rules and regulations between the employees. Rules for internal smooth working. Conditions if there is a breach in understanding.

8) Authentication of the project. if any new projects are taken up by the company.

9) Bankruptcy laws-these are chalked out initially itself for both company and the bankers. Clauses of understanding are drawn.

10) Blue law-this law is especially observed in US and Canada to take into account religious aspects in work like holidays on Sundays and Christmas etc. If unavoidable then compensation in what form is chalked out.

11) Cyber law--new law that is gaining importance. This ensures the security and privacy options of cyber sites. Also deals with the ethical and unethical hacking.

12) Duress-deals with any act of injustice or compulsions from both sides employee and employer.

13) Corporate law-clauses of corporate working and their requirements and fulfillment are taken care of.

14) Lien-security offered by company in exchange for some services or utilities and the terms and conditions of it.

15) Retirement laws-benefits a person gets on retirement, age, planning for retirement are all taken care of.

It is not easy running a business. However small it is always an empire because you are the sole master who runs the show.

So hold on to your money and your freedom, the House Intelligence Committee has passed a new cyber security bill which, get this - affords companies "liability" protection in exchange for "threat" information.

Remember, I told you before that we are at war in cyber space. And of course stuff gets passed to "protect" us from the cyber "enemy". Are you feeling kind of Iraqi war-ish yet? After all can't you feel the creepy cyber varmints lurking in your computers and phones. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Cause if you are fearful enough the big business can have their way. Boo!

CNN says "The bill also allows the government to share intelligence and other cyber threat information with industry."

Do you see the free flow of data going back and forth between the government and business and the business ( that we trust with our data) escaping liability? Well you better, cause that's exactly what's happening.

In the name of our "security" we have to give up rights. How? That comes next. If the company does not have liability because they gave cyber data to the government, guess who does shoulder liability?

Or in other words, if they get hacked and data is stolen, the only thing that will protect them is that they gave "cyber" data to the government. And there will be fines for non-compliance. Maybe not in this particular bill, but they will be "forced" to give up the data.

Hey, is this some kind of Trojan (horse)?

Oh, and they (businesses) are not to use any of that "cyber" data which is flowing from the government for business type things,like marketing. Right! They won't, unless...there is profit involved. Follow the money folks.Oh, (sorry, I can't keep a straight face), law enforcement is not to use any data for spying on us citizens. Ha! Some bill. No huge debate, no real public discussion, just a bunch of guys carving it up.

What really happened?

So a bunch of big biz types decided that they can't really stop the assaults on their data (our data) because it eats into profits. Now they need the government to bail them out. The Mandiant Report has done its job.

Of course this could get bounced out by the President, but it will return in some form or other. Boo!

Here we go! They are at it again.

http://www.fieldsbytes.wordpress.com

What we are experiencing with this economy is, from my point of view, a Major Correction. Life in this universe is about expansion and balance. Everything in nature is kept in balance by cyclic forces. It is no different with our financial system. We have had our "booms" and "busts." Because we are a part of nature and the universe we are subject to these laws which are cyclic.

Over these past few decades, we have spent more than we have been making - plain and simple and now it is time to pull back and live within our means. It is going to be tough! We will have to have hope and a vision that things will get better to get us through these times with persistence and determination.

This major correction we are experiencing is to shift the thinking and perspectives of the values that people in this country have put on things and life. This is an opportunity to change our world by changing our lives. In order to do so we may have to experience some unpleasantries. "Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better."

So let's look at how I think we got here in an elementary way.

A couple of factors to remember are 1) we have become a nation of instant gratification and we are now paying for this. When our parents and grandparents wanted something they saved their hard earned dollars for it - THEN bought it. They did not have credit cards and their only "credit based" payment was their house payment. 2) Somehow we have taken to equating having abundance to having "things". We kept wanting more things to "show" for our hard work. It is unfortunate that our societal thinking got off track.

There is still the abundance of money and supplies "out there" for everyone. It has just been shifting around. In light of the appearance of lack and loss, the reality is that there is plenty. What needs to happen is for the people of this nation is to break free from "the matrix" program. By this I mean that most people have been conditioned, programmed if you will, to think that the way to live is to have a job, get what you want now and pay for it later. Well, guess what?... Later has arrived!

*Stop*Breaking News

We can help this "Correction" to process faster if we as a people as a nation - change and correct our thinking. Yes, just like that! We can put the brakes on all this by creating a positive collective consciousness. Lets all get on the same page by thinking more positively!

It is unfortunate that our media has so much control over everyone who watches TV. They "sell" negativity. Negativity is what is perpetuating this downward spiral.

If people would stop watching TV, especially the News it would 1) stop the flow of negative thoughts and energy to the people and 2) the time used to watch TV could be used to create, to connect with the creativity that is in all of us. A simple solution... easier said than done.

We are all born with the innate ability to create our life by our thoughts and our dreams. We need to regain that ability by stopping the constant daily inflow of negativity by the Media.

What is going to revive America is resurgence of small businesses. People using their creativity to develop goods and services and marketing their products will bring about an enormous economic change. It is happening on "Cyber Street" now!

There is a huge movement on what I call "Cyber Street" (the internet) to create wealth by the virtual exchange of goods and services for money. The principle of what is happening on "Cyber Street" can help to bring back the balance of commerce to Main Street and Wall Street.

What is being created on Cyber Street is the generating of positive energy of hope for abundance. It is all a way to increase one's value by increasing one's knowledge. By increasing one's value to serve others is going to increase the flow of money energy to you.

By increasing your knowledge and skills on the use of the internet, you can increase your creative flow thus increase the flow of money energy to you. This does take time and in spite of all the hype of making thousands of dollars in 6 days or what ever, we need to remember that they have worked for years on their knowledge and experience base to be able to make thousands in a day. YOU CAN TOO! But you still need to go through the learning curve that everyone does before you see the results they are talking about.

BUT WAIT - Don't Despair

Everything you DO learn from them will shorten the time it will take you to become successful. Along the way - you too could come up with a product or service that you can offer either on Cyber Street or Main Street that will make you thousands a day!

My hope and mission is to bring out the concept of "unplugging from the matrix" to engaging with the bright and beautiful reality of positive energy and creativity that will lift the consciousness of the People in America to take this opportunity of this economic downturn to change themselves. To be able to thrive in this economy and shorten its duration will require us to change.

WE are the change we have been waiting for. Obama was the spark - But the change has to be with US.

Use the tools that are available online to increase your knowledge of the internet. Start increasing your internet knowledge base.

As strange and shocking as it may sound yes there are certain laws that are set out by the government designed to keep us safe...from the internet? Amongst the many laws about the internet that here is a look at the top 4 strangest internet laws. In no particular order here is the first one.

Upsetting the entertainment industry
It is made up mostly by penalties for people who upset the entertainment industry through actions such as downloading and sharing content illegally. The penalties also include the three strikes rule which allows for your family to be cut off completely from the internet if anyone single member of the household is accused of copyright infringement. The worst part about this is that this can happen without needing any sort of proof or evidence or even a trial. There is also a newer rating system for the gaming industry making more games easily rated not suitable for children or peoples under 16 or 18.

There is also a fine of up to £50,000 if someone is accused of file sharing in your household. A duty is placed on the Internet Service Providers (ISP's) to spy on all their existing customers to look out for anything that would help the entertainment industry sue them. To make sure the ISP's carry out this duty any who refuse can be fined up to £250,000.

Wiping out porn all together
The second worst internet law was made in the form of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) 1996. It was the American governments first attempt to regulate internet content. The purpose of the CDA was to keep children away from internet porn. The reason they did this was as a reaction to an article in 1995 called the Rimm Report and it claimed that the internet was full of porn. But after experts examined the article the found many errors to the conclusion meaning that the government's overreaction was based on bad social science. Furthermore the government mistakenly believed that it would be easy to segregate non-porn content and so developed a tagging system that would allow browsers to block off porn websites from the browsers. The problem here was that such a tagging system did not exist and the browsers were not under any duty to honour this tagging system. The government even threatened with sever punishments such as jail time for breaking this law. They really wanted to get rid of porn from the internet permanently but chose a mean a ridiculous way of doing so.

Having internet access can get you imprisoned
In Burma just having a modem alone even if you were not going to go on the internet and you just had it lying around due to the fact that having the internet is illegal there you would get imprisoned for the possession of a modem alone.

Cyber fraud a bit too extreme?
The final strange law of the cyber world is on the cyber crime of fraud and its punishment compared to fraud in the real world.

In the real world the maximum sentence for the offence of fraud is 3 - 5 years imprisonment. This sounds very strict however for fraud as a cyber crime the maximum punishment is goes up to ten years and a minimum range of 4 - 6 years for altering information on another persons computer even if it is something like the date or some pointless data.

Cyber Law deals with the legal issues of the internet usage and all devices connected over the network, their proper use in order to prevent and control cyber crimes. Since the internet is all over the world the rules and regulations are a bit cloudy but we need to keep in mind a few things to ensure that we are using the internet in a proper and safe manner without causing any trouble.

1.   The internet's jurisdictional boundaries may not be clear but the users are bound by the jurisdictional laws of the area in which they reside.

2.   Do not access web sites that may not be approved by the jurisdiction in your area.

3.   Do not post any offensive material that may cause an outrage among other internet users. Articles with an offensive tone on sensitive subjects like religion, politics etc., Uploading child pornography and other offensive materials is considered a crime in many countries and is punishable depending upon the country's laws.  

4.   Illegally downloading and distributing protected items like intellectual property and copyrighted articles is a cyber crime and those who are caught engaging in such acts can be prosecuted.

5.   Duplication of content or software from CDs and DVDs that are copyrighted and distribution of these on the internet is punishable.

6.   Stealing user information (phishing) and impersonating a user (ID theft) are serious cyber crimes.

7.   Sending bulk messages that can affect networks and jam mailboxes is called spamming. The US introduced CAN-SPAM Act t in 2003 that allows prosecution of spammers.

8.   Sending malicious codes such as viruses and worms through websites and e-mails is a cyber crime that can cause serious damages and anyone caught engaging in the act can be seriously punished.

9.   Any site that allows users to download materials without acquiring proper permissions can be prosecuted or even be made to close down. Napster.com was shut down for similar reasons.

10. Illegal bank transactions through internet,  to any dangerous individuals who might threaten national security is a cyber crime that will be considered as a breach of national security and those caught engaging in such acts can be punished by the government.

Even though the Cyber Laws are not very clear to every one the increase in cyber crime rate has pushed many governments to introduce Acts that would govern the cyber space at least within their jurisdictions. The governments of USA, UK, Canada and China have enforced Cyber Laws to control Cyber crimes. The other nations that have followed in introducing Cyber laws are India, Australia, Malaysia, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Thailand etc. Among all these nations China emerges to be the strictest in its laws regarding the use of the internet.

Two decades ago there wasn't really any type of cyber law. Today, we can't pick up a newspaper, without reading something about legal issues that involve the Internet, or the companies that do business there. The record and movie industry has been distraught over piracy, copyright infringement, and stolen intellectual property. And they have every right to be, but they aren't taking it lying down.

In fact, we now see that many of the cyber laws on the books are there because the movie and record industry has sent their lobbyists to Washington DC to get laws passed to prevent this theft. Has it worked? Yes and no, the piracy still exists, and it is doubtful if it can all be stopped. The European Union has just come out with a new law to protect companies from individuals downloading without paying for movies, and songs.

Software companies are also being ripped off, and it's not just in places like China where you might expect, a lot of stuff happens in the United States, and the Internet is worldwide, as we cross the digital divide. Sometimes people can't afford songs or movies so they download from a website which has pirated the songs and movies, and then there are the people who build websites who distribute this material who find ways to get a hold of it, usually you legally themselves.

Recently there was a very interesting article on cyber law and one of the big problems in the Wall Street Journal. The article was titled "Warner Bros. Probes Online Leak of Potter" by Loren A.E. Schuker published on November 24, 2010.

It turns out that Warner Bros had their latest Harry Potter film stolen a full four days of head of its debut according to the article. Although the full movie was not available, the first 36 min. were, and the folks that love to play around with file-sharing were able to get it for free. Now then, I'd like to express my opinion on this topic - and then ask some questions, philosophically of course.

If the movie companies can't get a return on their investment because their films and movies are stolen and given away for free, then they are less likely to spend big budgets on big movies in the future, because they will not be able to make a profit. Indeed, this creates a huge risk in the marketplace, and the reward is not there, if the work will only be stolen.

This is a detriment to not only the United States but also countries like Brazil and India who are also now making movies, along with China. How they protect their movie industries, as they will have the same problems as we do here. How much is at stake - hundreds of billions of dollars per year. That is well over the gross domestic product of at least 300 of the world's nations - stolen in cyberspace.

Even though we have laws in the United States, the EU, and other countries it is doubtful that cyber law alone can stop this problem. It appears that cyber law is only keeping the honest people honest, and the criminals are moving around too fast to stop, even with the recent domain name repossessions by authorities. Please consider all this.

Not long ago, I was reading about a high school in Oklahoma that was teaching kids computer skills so they could one day be 'good guy hackers' working for law enforcement, government, or even the military in our future cyber warfare command. Obviously, we need to start them when they are young, so they can be integrated into this technology as it evolves. Those that have learned computer programming skills in the past, may find themselves not up to speed in the present. Okay so let's talk about this shall we?

The other day, I was contacted by an individual working with a group of pre-military cadet students at the high school level also. They were learning all the skills necessary for cyber warfare, and they were in a town which was surrounded by military bases, therefore many of those kids might eventually end up in our military. These are good skills for good jobs and there will be an ever-increasing demand for them. Interestingly enough, this time we seem to be copying China because China is doing same thing in their schools.

In fact, China seems to be ahead of us when it comes to cyber-hackers. Perhaps that's because it is cool to be a cyber-hacker in China, which would account for all their patriot hackers, which the Chinese Communist Government claims that it does not approve of, but it certainly does nothing to stop, unless of course those same cyber-hackers try to disrupt the Chinese government.

Now then, there is a flip side to this, something that's quite challenging, and I'd like to discuss that with you. You see, just like Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid had explained; it isn't right for a master to teach fighting skills to someone who will abuse them. It takes a special person with the right level of integrity, someone that is a little more grown-up to not abuse this privilege. If we are teaching cyber warfare skills to high school students, allowing them to learn how to disrupt governments, companies, IT systems, cloud computing facilities, social networks, or hack into e-mail, twitter accounts, or Skype today, what are they going to try to hack into tomorrow.

Indeed, I hope they are offering ethics classes with all this, because there is a fine line between black, red, and white hat hackers in my observations and experience. It is my sincere hope that you will please consider all this at a philosophical level, along with all the ethical issues involved.