The Internet is a worldwide system of interrelated computers used for communication purposes. (Sean Selin, Governing Cyberspace: The Need For An International Solution, 32 Gonz. L. Rev. 365, 366 (1996-97).) This system allows people around the world to quickly interact with each other even though they are many miles apart. As a result, national borders are just speedbumps on the information superhighway. (Id.) Using the Internet, citizens of one nation can affect events in another without ever leaving their homes. This notion of action at a distance is proving problematic within traditional legal standards of jurisdiction. (Id.)
Nations have created many laws in an attempt to control the exchange of information over the Internet. Currently, due to the lack of national boundaries, the only adequate way for countries to assert any control over the Internet seems to involve either withdrawing or severely restricting access. (Id. at 367.) In this time of digital technologies, participants using the Internet face an unstable and uncertain environment of multiple governing laws, changing national rules, and conflicting regulations. Laws and rules governing the treatment of digital information must offer stability and predictability to build user’s confidence in the reliability of the Internet. But the international community is uncertain over enforcement of laws on the Internet. While countries have conflicting legal standards and jurisdictional authority concerning the Internet, there will be considerable doubt among Internet users as to its global viability. The regulation of content, the distribution of intellectual property, and the circulation of personal information on the Internet raise problems for national, as well as international, legal regulations of the Internet.