Computer Crime in the United Arab Emirates

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Provision of Copyright Law in the United Arab Emirates
International Copyright Law
Comparison of United Arab Emirates Laws on Infringement and the Global Laws
References

Introduction

In the world of technology, the types of crime committed vary greatly, ranging from conventional crime, such as aggravated assault, murder, rape, kidnapping, and carjacking to computer crime. Many policy makers are concerned with combating computer crime given the fact that it is on the increase.

Policies are being formulated on how to resolve the modern type of crime, which is infringing on the rights of various individuals, organizations, and governments. Computer crime is a new type of offense that is committed with the help of the computer and a network. In this regard, the computer might be used to commit this type of crime or it might be the target of crime (McQuade, 2006). Computer crime is associated with a number of other terminologies, including Net crime, which refers to the exploitation of the internet.

Net crime refers to a scenario in which individuals develop computer programs that are meant to cause harm to other individuals or entities. In their analysis, information communication scholars, such as Halder and Jaishankar (2011), noted that cybercrimes include those offenses that are meted out on other people, particularly to harm them or destroy their public image in society either directly or indirectly, with the help of modern telecommunication network.

Modern technology includes the internet (chat and emails) and mobile phones (short messages and MMS). Halder and Jaishankar observed that such types of offenses are dangerous to the survival of an individual, as well as the country’s financial system. In the modern society, crimes related to the computer are enormous (McQuade, 2009). These include cracking, patent violation, child pornography, child sprucing, and privacy issues whereby critical information belonging to an organization or government is lost to fraudsters.

In the global society, state and non-state actors tend to engage in computer crime with an aim of soliciting or obtaining financial gains through illegal means. This is conducted through espionage and financial theft. These forms of crimes are commonly referred to as transnational organized crimes.

In the information systems, this act is referred to as cyber warfare since an actor in one jurisdiction aspires to infringe on the rights of another individual in a different jurisdiction. In this regard, actors in the international system have come up with various measures aiming at containing the spread of this type of crime. The international criminal court was established in 2001 to partly with these types of crimes (Fitzgerald, 2007).

Locally, states are also working hard to strengthen local institutions in an attempt to deal with computer theft. This article aims at evaluating some of the laws established in the United Arab Emirates, which are meant to deal with cybercrimes. Moreover, the article analyzes some of the international laws aiming at dealing with computer crime. The article concludes by comparing the copyright laws applied in the United Arab Emirates and those applied at the global level. The article will focus specifically on copyright laws both at a local level in United Arab Emirates and internationally.

Provision of Copyright Law in the United Arab Emirates

The Federal Law number seven of 2002 in the United Arab Emirates provided some of the regulations that would guide members of the public as regards to copyright. The law was amended in 2006 under the amendment number thirty-two to offer more guidelines on copyright and its related rights (Lessig, 2002).

The copyright law is a result of various amendments that were instigated since 1972, when the ministers had the right to uphold certain information, especially when they were of great importance as far as national security was concerned. The Federal Law number fifteen paved way for an amendment that gave strict regulations on the spread and publication of a material. Copyright law was mainly controlled by the ministry of the economy implying that the economy minister was in charge of regulating certain materials based on their effects on national security (Fitzgerald, 2008).

The first article of the amendment delves into the definitions of various aspects related to copyright, but the second article is critical since it gives an individual the power to protect his or her original material through acquisition of patent. The law protects the works of authors from infringement, but only in the United Arab Emirates.

Among other works protected, books and literal works are the most cosseted. The law also recognizes patents acquired to protect computer software and databases, but the minister must approve such patents. The law protects other original works provided an individual proves that the law was followed when producing the piece of information.

Article 3 proscribes the protection of other materials or pieces of information obtained through unscrupulous means or techniques. For instance, the law does not protect ideas and procedures that are aimed at benefiting an individual in business or trade. This means that the law does not protect the ideas or pieces of information that would give an individual undue advantage in the market. The law intends to give each person an equal opportunity to compete favorably in the economy.

Based on this, the copyright law in the United Arab Emirates does not offer patent on official documents that are to be utilized publicly. These documents include news of current events, which are released by the media and other works that are already within the public domain (Fitzgerald, 2007). The law would only offer patent on current news under strict conditions, especially if it is proved that only a single organization or individual produced them.

Article Four states that only the ministry of the economy is in charge of issuing copyright. This implies that any individual with an innovation should report to the ministry in time in order to obtain a patent that would protect his or her intellectual property. In case the rights of an individual are infringed, the ministry would be the reference meaning that the state would take over the case. The works of an individual cannot be protected in case a copyright license is not obtained from the ministry in time.

The Fifth Article under the second chapter states that the author of any literary work has absolute rights over the information or any piece of information in which a patent is obtained. In this regard, the family member or any relative can inherit a patent in case the author is dead or incapacitated.

In particular, the law ascertains that the author and his or her descendants would perhaps enjoy everlasting and incontrovertible ethical rights as far as the piece of knowledge is patented (Brisbane, Fitzgerald, & Suzor, 2005). This would be through licensing of the unpublished or published material. In case a different person uses the published or unpublished material, he or she must cite it properly to prove that the ideas therein do not belong to him or her.

The author has the moral authority to protect his or her works even if it is in already in circulation. In this regard, the information should be utilized in the right way since the author has the legal power to recall it from the public. In case some modifications are carried out on the material, the author has the right to sue anyone attempting to change the information. In this case, the author can seek a legal notice to withdraw the material from the public and seek adequate investigation on the infringement. The author can receive compensation in case his or her works are used without permission in the United Arab Emirates (Fitzgerald, 2008).

However, this would only be determined by a competent court. The sixth article is simply a follow up to the fifth article stating that another person cannot attempt to interpret the works of the author without seeking permission or giving proper citations. In the seventh article, the law reiterates that only the author has the power to license the use of the published and unpublished works (Dualeh, 2007). This includes electronic duplication, storage, demonstration, dissemination, and public performance. Moreover, the works of the author cannot be leased, lent, or be accessed electronically without his or her permission.

The eighth article of the United Arab Emirates copyright law states that the software of any given material can be leased to a third party, but only the author has the right to do this. The works of the author are considered an economic benefit hence any other person should not gain from it economically. Based on this, acquisition of the necessary permit before leasing the piece of information is mandatory for any person wishing to lease the piece of information (Touretzky, 1990).

However, the author should not interfere with the process of selling or leasing the piece of information in case the right procedure is followed. The tenth article talks about the pro rata share meaning that the author should receive some monetary benefits whenever his or her piece of work is sold to other people. In this regard, the law gives the author the right to receive any payment in case his or her material is shared with other members of the public.

Article 11 states that if the agreement in article ten were considered prejudicial, the author or the legally mandated successor would seek redress to establish the amount to be compensated. Under this regulation, the author or the successor would receive additional monetary benefits other than the initially agreed fees (Brenner, 2007).

The copyright law in the United Arab Emirates contains fifty articles, which are closely related. This means that the rights of the author are clearly stated in order to promote innovation and originality. The minister in charge of economic development is mandated with a responsibility of ensuring that the works of one individual do not benefit fraudsters who are keen on utilizing the works of others without following the law.

The cases of A & M Records v. Napster Inc and Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd v. Sharman License Holdings Ltd prove that copyright laws can be applied successfully to benefit the author or the owner of the original information. In the two cases, the defendants played a role in reproducing and broadcasting the works of various authors with an aim of gaining profit. The main aim of the copyright law is to enrich the owner of the information (Csonka, 2000).

This promotes economic stability since the rightful people are allowed to enjoy the results of their skills. Some analysts are of the view that copyright laws do not promote democracy and cultural development since they disrupt the doctrine of accommodation and innovation. An individual has to be prepared to deal with legal suits if he or she attempts to come up with an idea that is already patented. Such scholars argue that a boundary should be drawn in order to promote innovation and uniform economic development.

International Copyright Law

It is unfortunate that no single international law exists on the protection of the rights of authors. However, two treaties exist. These treaties are considered international provisions that protect authors from heinous acts of cyber criminals who always aim at benefiting illegally from the works of others. The international law does not protect any creative work, but these treaties protect any piece of material, as soon as it is fixed in a medium (Walden, 2007).

These global treaties include the Buenos Aires convention and the Berne treaty on the protection of literary and artistic works. The Buenos Aires global treaty on copyright treaty is simply a mutual recognition of other people’s literary works. In this case, any material would contain the information ‘all rights reserved’ meaning that the author has absolute rights regarding the usage of the material. This information is usually conveyed in all materials that are not meant for public utilization (Wall, 2007).

Regulations on copyright vary from one country to the other. In the United States for instance, the author and the year of publication should always be cited properly. Other countries are stricter while others are even reluctant to implement the law since no single global law protecting the works of the author exist. Under the Buenos Aires treaty, the works of any author are only given temporary protection, what is usually referred to as the rule of shorter term. Under this policy, the country of origin and the author are usually protected for a specified period.

In 1952, there was a deliberate attempt to protect authors from cyber criminals. Developing countries complained that the Berne convention favored only developed countries, something that led to the designing of the Universal Copyright Convention. The treaty had a number of provisions, one of them suggesting that each state had to protect the works of authors from other countries, irrespective of the nationality. In case a foreigner needed a license to protect his or her works in a foreign state, the government should treat such an individual in the same way as its own citizen (Williams, 2006).

This would apply especially to a citizen from a member state. The state has the right to protect the works of an author for at least twenty-five years from the time of registration. If an author dies, his or her works should be protected for at least twenty-five years. However, this is different from the works of art, which are simply protected for ten years.

The law further states that the author has the right to benefit economically from his or her works through reproduction and broadcasting. In other words, the author is allowed to make some changes to his or her original works without obtaining a license. The law does not apply globally, as developing countries are exempted from certain clauses.

Berne convention is another treaty that is applied in the protection of the works of the author in the global system. It varies greatly from the Universal copyright convention. Berne convention protects the life of the author for at least fifty years after reproduction. However, the scenario is different in the case of cinematographic works since the patent expires after fifty years, irrespective of whether the author is alive or dead. The treaty recognizes some works that do not have authors (Yar, 2006).

For such works, the expiry of the patent is after fifty years since the information or the works was made public. If the author of the literary works were dead, the member countries would not attempt to protect his or her works. If an author dies before January of each year, the counting would be pushed forward to start in January.

The member countries have the power to extend the patent beyond fifty years if deemed necessary. However, members cannot shorten the patent of any literary material. If the treaty contradicts national laws of any member country, the laws of the state on the issuance of the patent would be applied to resolve the matter.

Application of the copyright law at the global level is different from its application at a national level. The universal copyright convention, the Bern Convention, and the Buenos Aires convention are very categorical on the application of copyright laws globally. In a case involving Sony Corporations of America and the Universal City Studios, the Supreme Court in the United States applied international treaties on copyright in interpreting the situation.

It was determined that the public cannot be denied access to a certain information if the piece of work or technology has various applications or usage. The author or the innovator could have registered a piece of knowledge, but this does not deny the public the right to access it, as far as the application of the technology is not similar to that of the author.

Comparison of United Arab Emirates Laws on Infringement and the Global Laws

As already mentioned in the previous sections, no single law on copyright exists at a global level. This gives individuals an advantage to infringe on the rights of the owner. The three conventions mentioned earlier are focused more on the period in which a certain piece of literature should be protected. For the Universal Copyright Convention, the time limit is twenty-five years while the Berne Convention gives at least fifty years.

The United Arab Emirates copyright laws do not specify the time in which a technology or a piece of information should be protected. This is mainly because technology is considered wealth. Another person should not benefit from the technology since it is inherited in the same way an individual inherits property. Another difference is that at the global level, protection of the author depends on the goodwill of member states, but in the United Arab Emirates, the law sanctions the state to protect the author.

Punitive measures are usually taken against an individual trying to benefit illegally from the works of another person in the United Arab Emirates. However, the case is different at the global level since various conventions are applied in interpreting the scenario. In some cases, infringement might be allowed with claims that a technology might have different applications. In this regard, the author is not guaranteed of protection given the fact that various governments have different interests regarding the application of technology.

References

Brenner, S. (2007). Law in an Era of Smart Technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brisbane, A., Fitzgerald, B., & Suzor, N. (2005). Legal Issues for the Use of Free and Open Source Software in Government. Melbourne University Law Review, 412(2), 120-174.

Csonka, P. (2000). Internet Crime; the Draft council of Europe convention on cyber-crime: response to the challenge of crime in the age of the internet. Computer Law & Security Report, 1(5), 45-98.

Dualeh, A. (2007). Copyright and Knowledge Advancement: A Case Study on UAE Copyright Law. Dubai: QUT.

Fitzgerald, B & Bassett, G. (2004). Legal Issues Relating to Free and Open Source Software. Essays in Technology Policy and Law, 1(2), 101-120.

Fitzgerald, B (2007). Open Content Licensing: Cultivating the Creative Commons. Sydney: Sydney University Press.

Fitzgerald, B. (2007). Internet and E-Commerce Law. Technology Law and Policy, 3(1), 213-214.

Fitzgerald, B. (2008). Legal Framework for e-Research. Sydney: Sydney University Press Sydney.

Halder, D., & Jaishankar, K. (2011). Cyber crime and the Victimization of Women: Laws, Rights, and Regulations. Hershey: IGI Global.

Lessig, L. (2002). The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World. Sydney: LBC Information.

McQuade, S. (2006). Understanding and Managing Cybercrime. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

McQuade, S. (2009). The Encyclopedia of Cybercrime. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Touretzky, D. (1990). Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation. New York, NY: Benjamin/Cummings.

Walden, I. (2007). Computer Crimes and Digital Investigations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wall, D.S. (2007). Cybercrimes: The transformation of crime in the information age. Cambridge: Polity.

Williams, M. (2006). Virtually Criminal: Crime, Deviance and Regulation Online. London: Routledge.

Yar, M. (2006) Cybercrime and Society. London: Sage.

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