This article examines whether it is plausible to apply the contracting norm of ‘Meeting Place’ in contracts being formed electronically without the presence of the contracting parties. It is aimed to critically engage in a balanced fashion between the traditional theoretical interpretation of the 'Meeting Place' and the practicalities involved from the use of technological means to form transactions in cyberspace. The Internet, in particular, has played a significant part in the development of commercial activities in many parts of the world. Hence, particular attention will be paid to discuss the appropriate implementation to the concept of ‘Meeting Place’ in light of transactions formed online via the Internet. Attempt will be made to define the concept and signify its objective in Islamic Law of Contract. Discussions will go further to question the possible application of the ‘Meeting Place’ concept in instantaneous and non-instantaneous mediums of communication.

Nowadays we use the internet as our main source of information and the search engines such as the Google to lead us through the labyrinth of websites in order to find the certain piece of information we are looking for. And because we can find almost everything we want and because asking a computer - believing that we remain unidentifiable - is sometimes easier than asking a real person, we venture into this labyrinth more and more bravely and deeply. Our search queries, which are systematically logged and stored by the search engines, show the wide range of our interests, intentions, desires often kept secret even from the closest friends and relatives.
   If the data stored by the search engines operators about the searches conducted by us made us identifiable, the pieces of our search history would be considered to be personal data, even sensitive personal data and should be treated as such.
   But is that really the case? And if so, what do the search engine operators do to save our privacy?
   The paper introduces the types of data processed and the privacy problems caused by the internet search engines and the lawfulness of their data processing activities in the light of the EU Data Protection Directive.

What does it mean to be you? How drastically can a person change and still remain, in the eyes of either themselves or their peers, the same person? Until recently, these questions were typically asked in the context of philosophy, psychoanalysis, or science fiction. However, the increasingly common use of avatars during computer-mediated communication, collaborative virtual environments (CVE' s) in particular, are quickly changing these once abstract questions into practical quandaries that are fascinating, thought-provoking, potentially paradigm shifting for those who study social interaction, and potentially devastating to the traditional concept of human communication. Given the advent of collaborative virtual reality (CVR) technology, researchers have begun to systematically explore the phenomena of Transformed Social Interaction (TSI).
   The Proteus effect is a particular application of TSI in which a user's self-representation is modified in a meaningful way that is often dissimilar to the physical self. When the user then interacts with another person, the user's behaviour conforms to the modified self-representation regardless of the true physical self or the others impressions. In an earlier introductory paper we detailed a conceptual framework that illustrated the idea of the self as composed of information in multiple cyberworlds, this tentative framework was utilised to explain a “layering” feedback process that may occur as a result of the self interacting in a CVE, in addition we expanded this framework to integrate an anthropological viewpoint of the self.
   In this paper our intention is to provide further understanding of the relationship between the Proteus effects and the conceptual model of multiple virtual personalities interacting in CVE using the Wittgensteinian language games framework, we expand our earlier paper to suggest that the notions of a “virtual personality” and “virtual game grammar” may hopefully bring a refreshing approach to examining the Proteus effect.

We will investigate the concept of the self (and its relation to personal identity in multiple cyber worlds). This investigation has its own justification, the fact that several questions concerning personal identity are answered by constructing examples of thought experiments involving fictional worlds. Thus it seems legitimate to us to discuss the problem in the framework of “concrete” alternative worlds which we call cyber worlds. The next section deals with a brief history of the problem of personal identity in modern philosophy and introduces the concept of the “self”. In section 2 we introduce conceptual frameworks that illustrate the idea of the self as composed of information in multiple cyber worlds and as a result pose some important questions to be investigated further, we finally conclude with section 3 and we consider how some concepts from anthropology may be applied to the study of the Cyberspace. Some authors tend to confuse, or overlap the concept of virtual communities or reality with the concept of Cyberspace because this is a rather vague concept. In this paper we consider virtual communities and virtual reality as just one portion of the Cyberspace. At the moment we are not going to try to answer fundamental ontological questions such as: what is Cyberspace? Is it or does it have a dimension? We assume that there exists a Cyberspace, a sort of electromagnetic space (and this space may be divide into modules), where a virtual interaction might be created and we will refer to this as a virtual world.

Accessibility of data via Internet allowed for an immense growth of international commerce. Millions of transactions are done every year by means of electronic communication. Customers no longer need to go to solid shops; merchants no longer need to sign solid copies of orders and contracts. Virtual reality has stepped in.
   Not everything has changed – disputes do still arise, and they are solved in front of national courts (by definition solid institutions) or by alternative means. A great deal of disputes in international commerce is settled through arbitration proceeding. Arbitration is (again by definition) more informal and flexible mean of dispute settlement. Therefore, it is not surprising that the arbitration community is also following the latest trends, and that recently on-line arbitration has come to an existence.
   However, once again we might encounter problems peculiar to cyberspace. Legal framework for arbitration on international level was created before the digital society was created. Thus, on-line arbitration is encountering problems of its own. To name a few: How should a written form requirement of arbitration agreement be interpreted? What is the seat of arbitration in on-line arbitration? Is an award enforceable? And of course are we still speaking about arbitration? This article will try to point several of these difficulties out, and if possible to suggest solutions.

As a new type of economic and social development model, integration of the industrialization and informatisation (The Integration) has given rise to broad attention in China. China has formulated a development strategy for the integration, that is “Developing modern industry system, vigorously promoting the integration of the information technology and industrialization”.
   However, we may ask: what’s the integration? At the moment there’s no general consensus on this topic in the theoretic fields in China. We observe that the current focuses are mainly zoomed in the macro-aspect in exploring the path of the integration, its feasibility and other related issues.
   In our view, and we are afraid that this macro approach may lose sight of the problems of property rights in the integration process. In fact, the industrialization and the informatisation have their own unique attributes, and they form different property rights structures.
   This thesis focuses on the property rights structure, and then explores the IP dilemmas in the integration process in China. Finally, we propose some specific approaches to resolve issues arisen from the process, such as the establishment of legal mechanisms of property rights, innovation and licensing mechanisms, information security mechanisms, etc.

Child pornography is a serious negative social phenomenon and countries are trying to fight against it effectively. Virtual child pornography constitutes a subset of child pornography. It is a new phenomenon with many unresolved questions and problems. This article firstly defines basic concepts which child pornography generally involves. Furthermore, it contains the definition of virtual child pornography from the perspective of Czech law and international law (especialy from the perspective of the European Union). This article including a solution to various issues as the subject of virtual child pornography, status of virtual persons from the legal point of view, determination of their age and criminal punishment in law. Finally three case studies, reflecting current position of selected countries on the matter, are stated. These studies show how virtual child pornography is dealt with in practice. Virtual world is becoming a daily part of life and increasingly penetrating into the real world, and for this reason there is also an expanding number of society´s moral values requiring protection.

On 1st November 2009, the Payment Systems Act no. 284/2009 Coll. came into operation. This new act recodified the former, historically first rule governing payment systems and services since 2003. New legal regulation reflects especially the Directive of European Parliament and Council of the European Union no. 2007/94/EC, about payment services in the internal market. The new law describes some new terms and concepts, e.g. payment service, payment institution, payment account, electronic money institution and the others. If payment services are now being provided, there is a necessity that mutual contractual relation between a payment service provider and their clients must be concluded either according to Basic Contract, or, if occasional transfer made, based on Single Payment Transaction Agreement. The act also very strong reflects the provider’s obligation to fulfill final customers with all the information. In order to this information transparency to be legally regulated, the Act implemented two basic forms of presenting this information, i.e. be obliged to provide this information or make this information available. Payment services are such bank products that are expected to be provided electronically. Thus, any electronic banking system could better contribute to the fact that all the information have been evidently provided or made accessible by the payment services provider.

The widespread global computer networks generate also illegal content, which can reach practically an unlimited amount of recipients.
   Utilizing global networks for dissemination or presenting child pornography is increasing in an avalanche-like way. Documents adopted in reaction to this phenomenon require that EU Member States, as well as countries belonging to the Council of Europe, take measures enabling prosecution of i.a. producing, making available, possessing and distributing child pornography by use of information systems.
   Problematic is so-called artificially generated or simulated imagery pornography. Blocking or withdrawing of illegal content from networks remains a debatable issue. Liability is often avoided due to the variety of legal systems applied by different countries. Hence, continuous international cooperation in analyzing the situation and coordinating measures in combating child pornography and other forms of sexual abuse on the Internet is of vital importance.
   Latest efforts of the European Union (e.g. the proposed new Council Framework Decision concerning combating sexual exploitation and abuse of children for sexual purposes, child pornography) strive for the adoption of harmonized regulations in combating this phenomenon in different countries.

The concept of property has a long tradition and it is widely accepted as a regulation scheme to allocate tangible scarce resources. Supporters of intellectual property rights tend to base their argumentation on traditional property rights theories as proposed by John Locke, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This presentation focuses on the question, whether Locke‘s labor appropriation theory can be applied to non-material goods.
   The results show that despite the fact that labor provides a strong connection between individuals and resources it widely fails to justify appropriation of non-material goods. Strong Lockean property rights in ideas must be refuted since they would harshly interfere with other civil liberties such as free speech, which Locke himself found extremely important. Furthermore, even partial appropriation seems problematic, given that private ownership is a precondition for efficient material production but not for the production of intellectual goods.
   Since intellectual production is a social endeavor and creation ex nihilo is implausible intellectual laborers may only (partly) appropriate the fruits of their labor but not the entire value of their final produce. 

• Locke argues that individuals are entitled to exclusively possess a resource to secure the production process. Given that intellectual production does not depend on exclusive ownership, intellectual resources remain in the public domain.

• It is only justified to appropriate the fruits of one’s own labor, not those of others. This finding seems to be particularly controversial, given the prevalent practice of companies seizing the ideas of their employees.

• Appropriation of ideas must not hinder other people to appropriate their own share. Furthermore, this pool of intellectual goods must be bigger than the pool, which people could expect in a natural state, in which an intellectual property regime is absent.

Sexting – the electronic communication of non-professional images or videos portraying one or more persons in a state of nudity or otherwise in a sexual manner – may have serious implications for the persons involved. From a legal perspective, such conduct may, for example, give rise to issues under defamation law, privacy law and copyright law. Even more seriously, where the content portrays a person who is underage, the sender, receiver and any intermediary involved in the communication can be charged with child pornography offences under criminal law.
   This paper examines some of the legal implications of sexting.

The recently introduced legislation on data retention to aid prosecuting cyber-related crime in Europe also affects the achievable security of systems for anonymous communication on the Internet. We have analysed the newly arising risks associated with the process of accessing and storage of the retained data and propose a secure logging system, which utilizes cryptographic smart cards, trusted timestamping servers and distributed storage. A practical implementation of the proposed scheme was performed for the AN.ON anonymity service, but the scheme can be used for other services affected by data retention legislation. We also discuss the practical experience from process of response to legal authorities’ requests both before and after the data retention directive was implemented. Moreover we give a general description of the legal obligations and the information about usefulness of the retained data is also provided. Derived from these obligations we give arguments reflecting challenges and obstacles for a secure and privacy respecting implementation of data retention.

At the dawn of the 21st century everyday life of the common citizen of industrialized society has become more and more intertwined with Internet technologies and services. Email and web are not only working tools, but in recent years with the advent of Web 2.0 technology they also developed into means of communication with friends and relatives, means of spending free time and relaxation, tools for education and in some cases they have replaced more traditional media like television and newspaper. The most frequently used and the most important service is still full text web search. This paper describes the history and current state of Internet search services and highlights ethical issues that are related to them.

Fuchs, Ch. 2008, Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age, Routledge, New York and Abingdon, x and 398 pp.