Objectives:
The aim of the course is to provide students with an overview and understanding of information technology and the legal and social issues relating to such technology.

Content:
Students will be introduced to the Internet, including a history and philosophy of the reasons for its growth. Students are encouraged to explore some of the information resources for themselves, in particular legal sources.

The main legal areas discussed will be as follows:

• Regulation of the Internet. An examination of current proposals for regulation of the Internet, both overseas and in Australia. This also relates to current issues about communications, censorship and freedom of speech.
• Computer Crime and Evidence. With the capacity to transfer data automatically, there is a much greater scope for electronic fraud and other crimes peculiar to the information age. This segment of the course examines issues relating to these new types of crimes and methods for dealing with them.
• Public Law Aspects. With the increased capacity to store information about people and distribute it widely, many aspects of public law are relevant to information technology. Privacy and freedom of speech are two areas central to the global expansion of the Internet.
• Intellectual Property. The global information infrastructure raises serious questions about the international intellectual property regime, especially as it relates to copyright. These issues are covered in a global and Australian context.
  

26 Contact Hours (Intensive Delivery)

Introduction to Legal Reasoning and Research (non-lawyers).� Students will also benefit from some introduction to Windows, Word for Windows and the Internet.