1. INTRODUCTION

We live in an era of ever-increasing interconnected of people, places. Capital, goods and services. We are witnessing an increase and an intensification of political, economic and cultural interactions across territorial borders. As a result, all states and societies have become thereby entangled in a complex system of mutual dependencies and few inevitable conflicts because of their distinctive municipal laws.

This paper critically analyses the facets of globalization and the role of the private international law in establishing a global civil society along with an analogy taken from Roscoe Pound's sociological theory with special emphasis on his concept of ‘jural postulates'. The aim of the argument is to bring into limelight the urgent need to make a paradigm shift from global economic perspective to a global sociological perspective in solving issues (viz. conflict of laws) which result from the process of globalization.

2. GLOBALISATION - MEANING

Globalization is a multifaceted process that manifests itself in such forms as global tourism, mass migration and the global reach of nuclear, environmental and health risks. Reduction in travel costs and time, as well as safer travel to many part of the world, has opened up the globe for discovery by the relatively affluent traveler .

The important facets of globalization are:
• Interconnectedness of people, places, capital, goods and services.
• Intensification of political, economic and cultural interactions.
• Complex system of mutual dependencies.
• Formation of an integrated global economy.

While these developments are important aspects of globalization,, arguably it has been economic changes and technological innovations in transport and information system and their worldwide diffusion that have conjured up visions of a ‘global' world. For many observers of the contemporary world, globalization refers to the formation of an integrated world economy. The mergence of such a global economy was premised on the development of a technological infrastructure regarding transportation, and the generation and circulation of information.

3. GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY

It is now being argued that ‘non-governmental' actors are in the process of forming a ‘global' civil society. These actors and other factors together provide individuals with opportunities to associate with each other and to live lives of civil interdependence without total subjugation to an overpowering state.

In short the global civil society provides the arena for freedom and liberty. With this reasoning many observers do not only declare that a global civil society is emerging, but plead that such a civil society on a global level ought to be created .

The questions to be answered precisely are:

i. Even if a global civil society did form - be it around the non-profit making non-governmental or around the MNCs - would it be in a position to sideline the states as global actors?

ii. Who or what would impose some degree of order in a global world populated by a multiplicity of actors and confronted with existential global problems ranging from ecological disasters, mass immigration, cross-border insolvency of MNCs, e-commerce regulations, etc. ?

There is also a conceptualization of the distant possibility of having a ‘world state'. But given the fact of political factors like sovereignty, right of self-determination, etc the paradigm shift has been towards ‘global governance'. And this concept of global governance has in itself a focus on the fundamental functions of a world state viz. administration of justice and war(maintenance of peace) in a slightly modified fashion.

4. JUSTICE, GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND PIL

The fact that there is no highly political authority at the global level and there is a disintegration of authority as a result of the increase in the number of global political actors does not mean that there are no effective political mechanisms by which orderly and reliable responses could be made to global issues . A ‘Commission on Global Gvernance', which was composed of a number of ‘eminent persons' - (former) politicians, economic leaders, academics - and which consulted individuals and representatives of governments, IGOs and NGOs, published a widely discussed report in 1995 under the title of Our Global Neighbourhood. In it they advanced the definition of ‘global governance':

"[Governance] is the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs. It is a continuous process through which conflicting or diverse interests may be taken....At the global level, governance has been viewed primarily as intergovernmental relationships, but it must now be understood as also involving non-governmental organizations(NGOs), citizens' movements, multinational corporations, and the global mass media of dramatically enlarged influence."

Though global governance is not equal to global government it should be concentrating upon the fundamental functions of a state such as:
a) Administration of justice and
b) War (maintenance of peace).

Global governance further has two implications:
• It is not equal to global government.
• Rather it is a multiplicity of actors pursuing collaborative solutions to common problems in a spirit of collective responsibility.

5. PIL AND MULTIPLICITY OF ACTORS

Private international law partly is important in dealing with the accomplishment of one of the functions of the global civil society namely the administration of justice. Global governance implies a multiplicity of actors pursuing collaborative solutions to common problems in a spirit of collective responsibility.
Thus in the field of private international law there are several organizations which are involved in the international level. Few of them are:
• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
• CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution
• ICC - International Court of Arbitration
• ICSID - International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes
• OTIF - Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail
• UNCITRAL - UN Commission for International Trade Law
• UNIDROIT - UN International Institute for the Unification of Private Law
• USITC - United States International Trade Commission
• WTO - World Trade Organisation Courts
The public-private gap has narrowed over time, particularly since the end of World War II. Today, much of Public International Law applies to individuals and corporations. And much of Private International Law applies to public entities such as State corporations engaged in international trade on International Economic Relations .
Hence the courts in the international level which deal with public international law are also dealing with private international law issues. They are:
• EFTA Court
• ICC International Court of Arbitration
• London Court of International Arbitration
• Permanent Court of Arbitration - the Hague
• United States Court of International Trade
There are also other international organizations which focus upon the unification of private international law such as the major intergovernmental organizations concerned with the unification and development of private international law:
1. the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL),
2. the Hague Conference on Private International Law,
3. the International Institute for the Unification of Private International Law (UNIDROIT), and
4. the Organization of American States (OAS),

6. INTEREST ANALYSIS AND ‘JURAL POSTULATES'
As the centre of gravity is toward a global civil society borrowing the implications of the sociological jurists for resolving the issues arising therefrom would be very apt and advisable.
To resolve the conflict in private international law it would be appropriate to have recourse to the analysis of ‘jural postulates' propounded by Roscoe Pound (1870-1964). For Pound the task of lawyers and legislators is ‘social engineering'. By identifying and protecting certain ‘interest', the law ensures social cohesion. An ‘interest' is defined as a ‘demand or desire which human beings, either individually or through groups or associations or in relations, seek to satisfy'. It is legally protected by attributing to it the status of a legal right.
The purpose of social engineering is to construct as efficient a society as possible, one which ensures the satisfaction of the maximum of interests with minimal friction and waste of resources. Pound argues that when interests conflict; they may be ‘weighed' or ‘balanced' only against other interests ‘on the same plane'. He also presents a classification of the institutions of law: he distinguishes between: rules, principles, conceptions, doctrines and standards.
The business of the law, in Pound's view, therefore consists in satisfying as many interests as possible. Which exactly is the needed in private international law. In explaining the way to know whether new interest qualify for recognition, he suggested that they might be tested by reference to certain ‘jural postulates of civilisation'. These consist of those (changing) assumptions which exist in ‘civilised society':
• no intentional aggression;
• beneficial control over what people acquire under the existing social and economic order;
• good faith in dealings;
• due care not to injure;
• control over dangerous activities and so on.

Moreover Pound's ‘objective' classification of interests and accompanying jural postulates reads like a political manifesto in favour of a liberal and capitalist society as exactly as found in the global civil society. Further, it also rests on a consensus model of society in which there is a considerable degree of shared values. Which exactly would serve the frictionless solving of private international law issues . Many sociologists regard a conflict model as a more accurate description of reality: his model of competing interests ‘pressing for recognition and security' overlooks the extent to which the law recognizes vested rights .
Interestingly solutions for all types of conflicts found in private international law are solved in one way or the other do have a bit of Pound's theory, which not only suits a particular society but the global civil society, in the international level.

7. CONCLUSION
Most observers of global changes explain the process of globalization giving it a monographic picture more akin to the development of global economy alone. To resolve multifaceted global issues like e-commerce regulations, consumer rights under contracts, issues of pre-incorporation contracts and alternative dispute resolution (including online dispute resolution) the solution should not only be found on the basis of the expansion and surety of world wide trade but on sociological basis giving importance to all aspects of international relations to establish a more reliable set up of international legal solutions especially in the domain of private international law.

8. REFERENCE

i. Issues in International relations, edited by Trevor C. Salmon (2000, Routledge: New York).

ii. William P. Slomanson, Fundamental Perspectives on International Law (2000, Thompson Learning: Stamford, 3rd ed.).

iii. Robert Jackson, international Relations (2003, OUP: Oxford)

iv. Raymond Wacks, Jurisprudence (1995, Blackstone Press Limited: London, 4th ed.).

v. V.D.Mahajan, Jurisprudence & Legal Theory (1987, Eastern Book Company: Lucknow, 5th ed.).

vi. J.D.McClean, Morris: The Conflicts of Laws (193, Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.: Delhi, 4th ed.).

vii. Cheshire & North, Private International Law (1999, Buttersworhts: New Delhi, 13th ed.).

viii. Private International Law http://www.state.gov/s/l/c3452.htm visited on 17/04/06

1.Introduction

Newsgroups are an alternative to e-mail as a way in which to distribute information to people sharing a common interest. "A newsgroup is a forum, in which Internet users can read and post messages and reply to postings from other users". A newsgroup is simply a database containing user postings.

Bulletin boards : digital bulletin boards are similar to their physical counter parts. Anyone with access to the board can pin up a message or question and any other person can leave a reply on the board. Some person (moderator) or the service provider removes old messages and remove rude or defamatory ones.

Forums : many service providers run bulletin board only for access by their members. These are called ‘forums'. They have a title indicating the sort of conversational threads and files to be found on the board.

Usenet : a collection of over 15,000 bulletin boards called newsgroups which can be accessed by any person with an internet connection. Instead of one particular Service Provider being responsible for maintaining and storing the newsgroups, like for a forum, all the subscribing Service providers store the conversation thread.

2.Newsgroups

Newsgoups have a standardized organization consisting of several nodes. Like
(First node).(second node).( ). . .

eg. - sci.stat. . .

shows that the newsgroup relates to scientific topic, and further the discussion is limited to statistics.

It is natural that for a group to be divided as its volume of materials grows.

eg. - sci.stat.consult

sci.stat.edu

sci.stat.math

the newsgroups may or may not be moderated by any person.

3. Usernet - Newsgroups

Usernet is a world wide distributed discussion system. It consists of a set of ‘newsgroups' with names that are classified hierarchically by subject. ‘Articles' or ‘messages' are ‘posted' to these newsgroups by people on computers with the appropriate software - these articles are then broadcast to other interconnected computer systems via a wide variety of networks.

Some newsgroups are ‘moderated'; in these newsgroups, the articles are first sent to a moderator for approval before appearing in the newsgroup.

" Usenet is the set of people who exchange articles tagged with one or more universally-recognized labels, called ‘newsgroups' ( or ‘groups' for short )"

Each usenet site makes its own decisions about the set of groups available to its users; this st differs from site to site ( eg.- Government agencies, large universities, high schools, businesses, etc.)

4. Defamation

There is an ample opportunity for propagating scurrilous material about others which may range from the irritating to that which is potentially defamatory or even a form of harassment.

Rindos Vs Hardwick ( 1st libel action to arise as a consequence of information posted to a newsgroup)

Rindos, an anthropologist, had been refused tenure at the University of Western Australia. A comment, in support of his work was placed on ANTHRO-L, an electronic bulletin board subscribed to by the anthropologists. In response, the defendant sent a vitriolic missive about Rindos to the newsgroup, sci.anthropology, another forum frequently accessed by academic anthropologists. Although establishing that, in principle, libel could be committed via electronic media, this case did not really have to address any of the difficult issues which might arise.

In Engalnd the Defamation Act,1996 in section 1(3) exemption for the service providers is givenas below.
"A person shall not be considered the author, editor or publisher of a statement if he is only involved...
(c) in processing, making copies of, distributing or selling any electronic medium in or on which the statement is recorded, or in operating or providing any equipment, system or services by means of which the statement is retrieved , copied, distributed or made available in electronic form...".

Corresponding section in Indian law is Sec.79 of the Information technology Act,2000.

"79.Network service providers not to be liable in certain cases. -For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that no person providing any service as a network service provider shall be liable under this Act, rules or regulations made there under for any third party information or data made available by him if he proves that the offence or contravention was committed without his knowledge or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence or contravention.

Explanation.-For the purposes of this section,-
"network service provider " means an intermediary;
"third party information" means any information dealt with by a network service provider in his capacity as an intermediary.

5. A Brief History of Newsgroups

Like many services on the Internet, newsgroups had their humble beginnings in an academic environment. In 1979 a couple of Duke University graduate students connected some computers together to exchange information with the UNIX community. At the same time, another graduate student at the University of North Carolina wrote the first version of the software used to distribute news.

This network, called Usenet, grew into a voluntary, cooperative exchange of newsfeeds, eventually evolving into electronic discussion groups. While there are some places that charge a fee for the newsfeed, Usenet continues to reflect its origins as an academic project designed to distribute information freely to anyone who wants it.

Usenet newsgroups are transmitted through UUCP (a fee-based system) or NNTP, a more common and free method of transport. The newsfeed can be held on a system until a sister site calls up and gets it, or as is increasingly the case, direct connections remain open between sites at all times, sending news out to other nodes on the Net as soon as it is received.

Each system administrator decides which newsgroups will be carried on the system. Since newsgroups take up valuable hard drive space and transmission bandwidth, administrators may choose not to carry all hierarchies. The Internet carries many kinds of resources of which Usenet is only one. Usenet is also carried on networks that are not part of the Internet.

6.Usages

Newsgroups, also referred to as forums, have been around almost since the dawn of the Internet. They enabled scientists to post questions (and answers) to each other. Today, newsgroups resemble virtual coffee houses, where people get together to discuss subjects of mutual interest. Except with newsgroups, the communication is written, not verbal. Newsgroups revolve around specific topics, such as wireless technology or organic gardening. You can read what others have written and post your own comments.

There are literally thousands of newsgroups covering every topic imaginable--from computers, social issues, literature and science, to recreation, entertainment, hobbies and current affairs. In newsgroups you can find job postings, business and health care advice, announcements about events, referrals, political and religious discussions--even photos you can download.

Newsgroups provide a way to quickly meet and communicate with people from all over the world who share your interests, without ever having to leave your computer. You can communicate with them anytime you like. (By the way, you can read what others are posting without responding.) The great thing about newsgroups is that anyone can participate, though not all Internet service providers offer access to every newsgroup.

7. How to create one

How does it work?

First you need a newsreader program. Both Navigator and Internet Explorer have built-in newsreader software.

Next, determine which newsgroups interest you and subscribe to them,
keeping in mind that newsgroups were once the only way to have so-called threaded discussions, where related messages are grouped together. Today, many websites have discussion group postings. When you are looking for a discussion to join, look at websites as well as newsgroups.

spamming : If material were simply to be directed to the specific group of interest, it would be fine. However, because many sites, including most commercial ones, allow postings to be sent to an indefinitely large number of groups by the simple expedient of separating their names by a comma or semicolon, what too often happens is that a post that previously would have been directed to one group now is directed to several groups. Thus, one message can become 100 or more messages. Thus uses up already strained Internet resources. The process of "spreading a message over many groups is called "spamming".

The Bush administration has passed a Federal Law to combat the spammers. This is known as CANSpam and involves penalizing spammers to the tune of $ 250 per email address used. But it US Federal Law so has no jurisdiction outside US and many of the spammers can locate their servers offshore and be immune from such penalties.

However, it does send out the right signals and if Europe and Asia develop similar laws it will become more difficult for the spammers to ply their trade.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sharma, Vakul. Information Technology Law and Practice(Cyber law & E-Commerce). Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.: Delhi.(2004)

McCormack,Dermot. 10 Technologies Every Executive Needs to Know. Vision Books Pvt. Ltd.:New Delhi (2004) p.35

Redd, Christopher. Internet law: text and Materials. Butterworths : New Delhi (2000)

Havig,Paul. COMPUTER LITRACY. Sage Publications: New Delhi. (1999)

Gringras, Clive. THE LAWS OF THE INTERNET. Butterworths : Landon (1997)

Rowland, Diane. Information Technology Law, Cavendish Publishing Ltd.: Landon (1997).

 content

INTRODUCTION
COMPUTERS - DEFINITIONS
THE IT ACT 2000- ‘Computer'
‘ANYTHING ELECTRONIC' COMPUTER ?
i. USUALLLY
ii. COMERCIALLY
iii. HANHELD DEVICES
iv. HOME APPLIANCES
‘ELECTRONIC RECORD' - DEFINITION
v. COMMON PARLANCE
vi. COMERCIALLY
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Introduction

The Information Technology Act,2000, has given more and more broader definitions of ‘computer' and ‘electronic record'. Thus arises a difficulty of determining the interpretation of these definition clauses to ensure the proper application of the Act. Yet few help from the foreign definition and comparisons with careful analysis will do to clear up the dilemma and explore the versatile field of definitions in the IT Act,2000..

computers - definitions

The commonest definitions of all available to describe ‘computers' in the field of information technology are as below.

"A machine that can follow instructions to alter data in a desirable way and to perform at least some operations without human intervention".

"An electronic, digital device that stores and processes information".

"A computer is a machine that accepts data (in digital form) and manipulates it for some result based on a program (sequence of instructions)which describes how data is to be manipulated or processed".

"An electronic, magnetic, optical, or other processing device or system that performs logical, arithmetic, memory, or storage functions. Computers represent and manipulate text, graphics, symbols, and music, as well as numbers".

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) - The phase IT refers to the creation, gathering, processing, storage and delivery of information and the processes and devices that make all this possible.

A plain reading of the above definitions would suggest that the following are the possible generalizations to form an inductive definition which would prove to be exhaustive.

• Some operations without human intervention ( on instructions )
• Processing information
• The information processing cycle includes input, processing, output, storage, distribution.

information processing cycle

Programmable ( sequence of instructions as to how the data has to be
Manipulated or processed.)

Functions - logical, arithmetic, memory or storage..

The IT Act 2000- ‘Computer'

Developing further on these trend of defining ‘computer' the Information Technology Act, 2000, in Section 2(1)(i) gives out an inductive definition as follows:

"compuetr system" means a device or collection of devices, including input and output support devices and excluding calculators which are not programmable and capable of being used in conjunction with external files which contain computer programmes, electronic instructions, input data and output data, that performs logic, arithmetic, data storage and retri ... , communication control and other functions;"

The definition if segmented gives out a clear picture as to what are all the devices which can be declared to be ‘computer'.

• a device or collection of devices,
• including input and output support devices
• excluding calculators which are not programmable
• capable of being used in conjunction with
  i. external files which contain computer programmes,
  ii. electronic instructions,
  iii. input data and output data
• performs  1. logic, 2. arithmetic,
  3. data storage and retri ... ,
  4. communication control and
  5. other functions

‘anything electronic' computer ?

It can not be barely said that anything electronic is computer. As per the provision if a device or collection of device fulfills all the conditions mentioned in the definition of computer that would be a computer for the purpose of the IT Act, 2000.

Thus ‘computer' includes

usuallly

• personal computers,
• notebooks,
• LAN servers,
• Minicomputers and mainframes or
• any storage facility or
• communications facility that is directly related to or operated in conjunction with that device or system

comercially

• Large computers like Systems used for
• weather forecasting,
• online-reservations,
• ATMs,
• creating junk mail
• animation
• movie processing
• music composing
• sports data analysis
• 3D art pieces, 3D stereogram like holograms, 3D pictures.
• Photography editing
• Designing in various industries
• Research projects (science, statistics, autonomics, physics, chemistry,etc.)

Hanheld devices

• Digital camera
• Tablet PC
• Simputer
• Devices using GPS technology (used in cars, military vehicles, etc.)
• Mobile phones

Home appliances with specially designed semiconductor chips

• Refrigerators
• Internet TVs
• Set top box
• Electronic toasters
• Washing machines connected to the internet
  

‘Electronic record' - definition

Section 2(1)(t) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, defines ‘electronic record' as,

" ‘electronic record' means data, record or data generated, image or sound stored, received or sent in an electronic form or microfilm or computer-generated micro fiche".

Thus ‘electronic record' means

• data,
• record or data generated,
• image or sound stored, received or sent in

1. an electronic form or
2. microfilm or
3. computer-generated micro fiche".

common parlance

Section 4 gives legal recognition to electronic records as

legally required information or matter
which is rendered or made available in an electronic form;and
accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent reference.

It may be any data in

• Floppy discs
• CDs
• DVDs
• Hard discs
• Magneto-optical discs
• Magnetic taps
• PC cards
• Smart cards
• Web storage in a server.

 comercially

• digital signatures (sec.5)
• e-mail
• web page
• newsgroup sites
• SMSs
• MMSs, etc.

Conclusion

Though there are considerable number of items presented above, these are only small lists of computers and electronic records. But the definitions in the Information Technology Act,2000, have given a versatile venue where the future developments can comfortably be covered to be governed by the provisions of the Act.

bibliography

Pfaffenberger, bryan, QUE'S COMPUTERS & INTERNET DICTIONARY, PHI Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 6th , 2001.

Curtin. Foley. Sen. Morin. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY THE BREAKING WAVE,Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, 10th, 2001.

members.tripod.com/~rvbelzen/c128sg/glossary.htm

www.southbend.tech.purdue.edu/academics/degrees/CPTHtml/cpt_terminology.html

www.osc.state.ct.us/manuals/PropertyCntl/appendixa.htm