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33 Victoria U. Wellington L. Rev. 433 (2002)
The Internet and the Law

handle is hein.journals/vuwlr33 and id is 867 raw text is: THE INTERNET AND THE LAW Benedict Dugan** and Bob Dugan* I INTRODUCTION The Internet and related technologies are impacting on the law like no other phenomenon in our lifetime. The impact is felt from the basic institutions of contract and tort to the remote corners of competition law and securities law. The legislative system is not coping with the challenge, as demonstrated by the paralysis over the Electronic Transactions Bill and the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 6). This article opens with some background material about the Internet, proceeds to consider its impact on eight areas of the law and concludes with some observations about the feasibility and direction of regulation. A History The Internet traces its history to the ARPAnet, a United States Department of Defence project in the late 1960's to establish a communication system capable of withstanding catastrophic attack. The Internet was confined to military and university purposes until 1987 when it was made available for commercial use.1 Internet use exploded in the early 1990s after invention of the browser/server combination that we associate with the Worldwide Web. The number of connected persons has risen from 242 million in the year 2000 to over 500 million in 2002. The phenomenon known as electronic commerce has grown from $0 in 1990 to $500 billion in the year 2000 and is predicted to top one trillion dollars by the end of this year.2 Computer Science Department, University of Washington, Seattle. Reader in Law, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington. Editor's Note: This paper was prepared before the passage of the Electronic Transactions Bill as the Electronic Transactions Act 2002. The points that the authors make, they believe, about the Bill remain true of the Act. 1 <http://www.netvalley.com/archives/mirrors/dave/marsh-timline-l.htm>. 2 <http://www.epaynews.com/statistics> and <http://www.intemettrafficreporter.com>.

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