Conventions Regulating Business Law - Essay Example

Kamran Harris Business 12 December 2007 Business Law Introduction: With the development and advancement of computers and related electronics, the technology of the Internet, ever since its inception into the general public, has revolutionized the concept of globalization and the flow of information. Almost all sectors of economy and society have been affected by the advent of the world wide web. Politics, business, technology and academics have all been given a boost and are benefiting from the spread of this technology. With its exponential growth and the explosion in information and exposure in the world due to it, there was felt a need for an establishment and determination of rules and regulations, and a framework for it to operate within. A committee or a forum was needed to be established that would discuss and lay the framework and the critical and basic issues related to the regulation of the Internet. For this purpose, a convention was held in Athens, Greece, in 2006, called the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), under the UN that laid the grounds for the next convention that was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 12 through 15 of November 2007. Both the conventions established the agenda and objectives of the IGF to be followed internationally. All the stakeholders from all the countries, especially the governments, are encouraged to participate, abide by the regulations and actively involve in their implementation in their countries. This is imperative as Internet crosses all national boundaries and this makes supervision by one body both impossible and inefficient. Four basic and major objectives were laid down in the first convention in Athens, and a fifth was added in the agenda in the second convention in Rio, along with building upon the established four. Basically, all these agendas are based on the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. These objectives are as follows: Access: the Internet is on an ever increasing growth, however, majority of the world population still lives in isolation from this important tool that has the power to radically change the economic and the social conditions of any society. According to reports, out of the total 6 billion people living in the world today, approximately only 1 billion have access to the Internet facility, the remaining five billion people are still on the other side of the digital divide that is so crucial to bridge. The true power of the Internet can only be fully harnessed if it is utilized by the majority of the people worldwide. Up till now, however, only approximately 1.6% of the world population is benefiting from it. This means that the availability of access is the most important and urgent issue facing the forum, and it has to be tackled first. To counteract upon it, certain proposals have been included in the agenda. First off, an effort would have to be made on the international level, involving all participating stakeholders, to set up regulatory bodies and to outline legal policies for investment and establishment of infrastructure in this sector. Most of the population that does not have access to the Internet are the local people living in rural areas. These areas pose several problems. The economic standards of people living there are not very high, and so Internet access would have to be made affordable and easy. For this, local access points, or building-out infrastructures (IGF 2007) would have to be set up so that a greater number of people an use it with minimal expenditure. The imparting of computer related skills and knowledge is essential as without knowing how to operate the technology that is associated with the net, it will be of little value. Furthermore, telecommunications are not very well established there, so the governments should increase the use of radio technology. Secondly, local bodies should be set up that encourage private sector investments in this area, and provide incentives to the people for utilizing and developing this technology in their localities. Diversity: with the growing number of people using the Internet, the issue of diversity surfaces out. Many of the people using the net do not communicate in English or even use the English writing format. Hence, it becomes imperative that Internet is and should be for all languages and that efforts should be made to include on the net content that is multilingual. For this reason, it was unanimously acknowledged that lingual diversity should be welcomed as this would form a more stable, respectful, and universal Information Society (IGF 2007) that would be more aware and keen to share knowledge and learn. With the inclusion of local and even minority languages, more people would be inclined to use the net an local people would finally get access to the material that they were unable to comprehend before. This would certainly improve their economic and social conditions as they would be able to communicate and do business, opening up new vistas for them. To make this possible, local bodies should be set up that should encourage the development and protection of material composed in the indigenous languages. Again, a regulation and a policy framework would be required. Openness: one of the outstanding and basic features of the Internet is its openness and freedom of expression. This liberty forms the core nature and functions of their world wide web, providing unhindered information to millions of people world wide, sharing ideas and opinions and deriving more knowledge from it to form a more aware and advanced human society that is constantly progressing and is empowered and free. This is not only beneficial to the social and intellectual development of the human society, but economically, too, it has its robust advantages. Steps would have to be taken to maintain this freedom of cyberspace which people can use in a trusted and respected manner. However, this can also pose security issues. Nevertheless, when dealing with those issues, it was established as a goal of the forum to check unnecessary intervention by the regulatory and legal bodies so that the liberty of people is not infringed and their trust is not severed. Security: although freedom of expression and the bountiful openness of the Internet is its amazing quality that makes it such a wonderful tool for social growth, it brings with it the threat of security breaches and violation of laws in the form of cyber-immoralities and cybercrimes. A check and balance needs to be developed so that users don't lose the sense of confidence and trust that they develop with the Internet, while still feeling safe and protected from the adverse practices that could just as easily be carried out on the Internet using the same freedom of expression and openness. Especially child pornography and child sexual abuse are the glaring issues that need to be eradicated. For this reason, regulation would have to be done on three levels; international, national and local. Self-regulation can be used effectively to bring in harmony the many opportunities Internet provides and the human rights. The European Committee is especially disbursed the task of child pornography elimination. It has been proposed that the Internet could be zoned into the adult content and the children content for the protection of the children (IGF 2007). And it was established that the State would be responsible for ensuring children's safety on the Internet, which brought with it the notion that children could later hold the State responsible for any breach in their rights (IGF 2007). Other threats like the control of computer viruses, public safety and personal information handling are also on the agenda. Critical Internet Resources: a general outlining of the resources to be used for the forum in order to bring an advancement and progression in the field of information technology was also discussed in the convention. It was decided that committees should be set up to regulate the technological, linguistic, telecommunication-related and other resources that have to be employed in the Internet, and a legal policy should be established that would provide a framework for the utilization of these resources. Also, it was decided that established goals should not be re-opened, and that the working private and business sectors should be kept intact (IGF 2007). Effects on Business: invariably, Internet and the objectives established by the Forum in the conventions would have significant effects on international business. First and foremost, the business sector would receive a lot of incentives by the stake holding bodies in the Internet Governance to provide greater investment in the information technology sector, especially in the rural areas. The existent businesses that are working in this area would experience support by the States. Hence, the environment for private sector in business would be made very agreeable. However, multilingual workings on the Internet can pose problems and complications for a sound universal business management and as it hamper international business pertaining to its linguistic barriers and associated regulations. The intervention by the government to provide security might also threaten freedom of business operations. Works Cited Internet Governance. 2 February 2006. 12 December 2007 < http://www.internetgovernance.org/pdf/igp-forum.pdf> Internet Governance Forum. 2007. Rio de Janeiro. 12 December 2007 IP Justice. 2 August 2006. Internet Governance. 12 December 2007 < http://ipjustice.org/WSIS/2august2006.shtml> UN. 2 November 2006. Internet Governance. 12 December 2007 < http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/pi1750.doc.htm> Read More