The cyber law encompasses a wide variety of legal issues which includes intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction.
Later The Electronic Transaction and Digital Signature Act 2004, also known as the cyber law, was passed. This law was forecast to be a landmark legislation for the development of IT industry in Nepal.
Under Act of 2004, hacking, deleting data, stealing e-documents, software piracy and posting defamatory information invite criminal and civil sanctioning to individuals and institutions. Under this law, the government can punish cyber offenders with up to five years of imprisonment and/or a fine of up to fifty thousand rupees. However, much depends on the severity of the crime. The law has tightened the security for banking transactions through electronic means, which should boost the economic activities across the Internet via Nepal.
The biggest challenge before the cyber law is its integration with the legacy system of laws applicable to the physical world. Since cyberspace has no geographical boundaries, nor do the Netizens have physical characteristics of Sex, Age etc, several conflicts surface when the rights of Netizens are viewed from the eyes of citizens of a physical space. This is well reflected in the conflict between the trade mark laws and system of domain names.
The unique structure of the Internet has raised several legal concerns. While grounded in physical computers and other electronic devices, the Internet is independent of any geographic location. While real individuals connect to the Internet and interact with others, it is possible for them to withhold personal information and make their real identities anonymous. If there are laws that could govern the Internet, then it appears that such laws would be fundamentally different from laws that geographic nations use today. Since the Internet defies geographical boundaries, national laws will no longer apply. Instead, an entirely new set of laws will be created to address concerns like intellectual property and individual rights. In effect, the Internet will exist as its own sovereign nation.
In comparison to traditional print-based media, the accessibility and relative anonymity of cyber space has torn down traditional barriers between an individual and his or her ability to publish. Any person with an internet connection has the potential to reach an audience of millions with little-to-no distribution costs. Yet this new form of highly-accessible authorship in cyber space raises questions and perhaps magnifies legal complexities relating to the freedom and regulation of speech in cyberspace.
In many countries, speech through cyberspace has proven to be another means of communication which has been regulated by the government. The Internet offers extraordinary opportunities for "speakers," to express themselves. Political candidates, cultural critics, corporate gadflies, anyone who wants to express an opinion about anything, can make their thoughts available to a world-wide audience far more easily than has ever been possible before. A large and growing group of Internet participants have seized that opportunity. Some observers find the resultant outpouring of speech exhilarating. They see in it nothing less than the revival of democracy and the restoration of community. Other observers find the amount -- and, above all, the kind of speech that the Internet has stimulated offensive or frightening. Freedom of speech and expression and cyber law are related.
