Activity 12-1

1. From the cases summarized above, explain what constitues acomputer crime.

Computer crimes accomplished through the use of computer systems, especially with intent to defraud, destroy, or make unauthorized use of computer system resources. Computer crimes vary from territory to territory. Laws against computer abuses must first be institute before it becomes a computer crime.

Computer crime can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature, such as theft, fraud, forgery and mischief, all of which are generally subject everywhere to criminal sanctions. The computer has also created a host of potentially new misuses or abuses that may, or should, be criminal as well.

2. Discuss at least three other examples of computer crimes.

Computer EmbezzlementIt is defined as "the fraudulent conversion of property of another by a person in lawful possession of that property". Crimes of this nature generally have involved a relationship of trust and confidence, such as an agent, fiduciary, trustee, treasurer, or attorney.

Software applications like QuickBooks and other accounting management systems have become the industry standard because of their ease of use, efficiency and powerful reporting capabilities. However, disgruntled or dishonest employees who are believed to be trustworthy can also abuse these popular business systems. Embezzlements from business are on the rise and the evidence of such crimes is usually in the form of computer related evidence.

In most states in the United States embezzlement is a crime. Under acts of Congress, stealing of letters by postmasters, clerks, and letter carriers is considered embezzlement.


Child Pornography
Pornography is any written or visual material that depicts nudity and/or sexually explicit activity for the purpose of causing sexual arousal. Of course, not all descriptions or photographs of nudity, sexual organs, and sexual activity (such as those found in educational material or medical textbooks) are pornographic. What makes material pornographic is its calculated intent to cause sexual arousal.

In the United States, viewing child pornography of any kind, including the various pictures or movies on the Internet, is indeed a computer crime. Several laws in this country prohibit the sale, distribution, viewing, and making of child pornography. The U.S. government regards any person under the age of 18 to be a child, so therefore pictures of a naked 17 year old are still considered child pornography.

Software CrackingIt is a software hacking in order to remove the encoded copy protection. Distribution of cracked software (warez) is generally an illegal (or more recently, criminal) act of copyright infringement.

Software cracking is most often done by software reverse engineering.

The passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act made software cracking, as well as the distribution of information, which enables software cracking, illegal in the United States.

A good example would be a "No CD" crack, which edits the program so that the CD is no longer needed to execute the program. Another example occurs when businesses break the copy protection of programs that they have legally purchased but that are keyed to particular hardware, so that there is no chance of downtime due to hardware failure.

References:

http://www.answers.com/topic/software-cracking

www-staff.mcs.uts.edu.au/~jim/cit2/cit2-99/legal/LegalIssue.html#What%20is%20computer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime
http://www.crime-research.org/library/Introduction.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embezzlement
http://legal.laborlawtalk.com/EMBEZZLEMENT