Please Read The Internet and Public Policy: CriminalActivity on the Internet. Please summarize and indicate if you see anything here that will be changed by the Van Buren case?

The Internet and Public Policy: Criminal Activity on the Internet This is one of a series on public policy and the Internet, with special attention to the laws and public policies of the state of Minnesota. This publication discusses criminalization of Internet activities and provides information on federal and state laws enacted to address Internet-related crimes. The Internet is a worldwide communication web created through technology, hardware and software, and human use patterns, which are shaped by mores, customs, and occasionally laws. States have their own roles within the larger national and international network that is the Internet. The challenge for policymakers is that the Internet itself is malleable, and no static definition can capture its breadth and changing uses. This series of information briefs isolates discrete policy issues and the ways in which specific Internet issues provide choices for the Minnesota marketplace and for lawmakers. See the list at the end of this document for other titles in this series. As the Internet expands the ways people interact, it also offers a new arena for illegal activities. Some of those activities are traditional crimes while others deal directly with the use of computers and software. For example, the Internet allows for greater access to victims of harassment and stalking. It also offers new ways to access financial records to facilitate crimes like theft and fraud. Identity theft has found particularly fertile ground online: in 2001, the FTC documented 86,250 identity theft complaints and in 2015, that number had ballooned to 490,226. Criminals attempt to hide their actions by using new pathways for illegal transactions, or alternative payment methods like Bitcoin, which can be difficult to track. Programmers, seeking personal gain or notoriety, create software that steals information from computers, locks them temporarily, or attempts to completely shut down large computer networks. Even seemingly simple acts like downloading music, photographs, and written materials may violate copyright laws.4 Lawmakers have addressed the use of computers by amending existing laws to specifically include actions taken over the Internet and creating new crimes where existing laws do not apply. But, even where crimes committed on the Internet fall under existing laws, there are challenges to prosecuting them. The Internet allows people to remain anonymous and can make it difficult to identify particular perpetrators. There are few boundaries on the Internet and actions can easily cross county, state, and national borders, leading to questions about appropriate jurisdiction. 6