Two Laws Governing Computer Use

Two Laws Governing Computer Use

List down two laws governing computer use and explain what types of non-jural law seem to underpin these two laws.

E-Commerce Law of the Philippines (RA 8792) and Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (RA 8293)

Natural Law, which Plato distinguished from legal statutes such as the two RAs, cannot be the category for the RAs if we will follow Plato. It is ironic because even though the RAs are just institutionalized by men, the RAs are meant to uphold the principles of natural law as enumerated by Plato. What is also ironic is that people like Plato interprets the so-called Natural Law according to their liking, wherein conflicting ideas arise making Natural Law’s universality questionable, which in a way is an “institutionalization” by men. The module states that the principles of legal statutes are derived from natural law and the RAs are examples of these statutes.

Moral Law “is a system of unwritten ordering principles based on good and virtuous conduct that governs human actions.” Being unwritten, Moral Law cannot accept the compliance to it by the RAs. However, the module stated some examples that can be derived from the RAs that the modules states as compliant with Moral Law. They are

1. Respect for the rights of owners of intellectual property
2. Compliance with computer [norms and] laws
3. Condemnation of computer crimes and abuses

Imposition of Physical Law is irrelevant because natural occurrences comply with it. Therefore it doesn’t need enforcement by men. Physical Law is not a direct source of legal statutes but is instrumental in the verification of man’s compliance with legal statutes such as the RAs and other legal activities that require objectivity regarding natural phenomena.