Law and the internet

The Feds arrested 50 people this weekend. charging them with a variety of crimes, from setting up fake banking websites to collect the account numbers of unsuspecting customers to surreptitiously taping and selling unreleased movies. According to Ashcroft, online crime now accounts for more than one-half of all fraud complaints. Since Jan. 1, the Justice Department and other federal agencies have uncovered more than 89,000 victims bilked out of some $176 million. Hopefully the government has carefully thought through how they will establish jurisdiction over the defendants. More importantly, I hope they have the evidence necessary to prove their allegations so that the online thieves spend some real time in jail. Otherwise, the message will be completely lost.