			On Law Enforcement Agencies in Cyberspace
						William R. Cockayne
						Apple Computer, Inc.	
						  billc@apple.com

			Session II - Logical and Ontological Problems

		While state and local law enforcement agencies 
		successfully investigate and prosecute technological 
		crimes in specific geographical locations, federal 
		intervention is clearly called for when the nature of 
		these crimes becomes interstate or international.
									- Garry M. Jenkins
									  Assistant Director
									  U.S. Secret Service

	As cyberspace becomes a reality, the ability of the matrix(1) to police
itself becomes increasingly more difficult and involved. The matrix, once 
exclusively for the academic specialists and techno-advanced corporations, 
is now expanding to include various users, from general consumers (Prodigy) 
to children (KidsNet). With this influx of users comes the concepts of civil 
rights and privacy. Newcomers to the matrix bring with them the understandings 
of civil liberties and law that they developed in the real(2) world. Whenever 
these users perceive that they have somehow had their real world rights 
violated, they usually apply real world laws to the problem. The optimal 
implementation of real world laws when applied to the matrix has been, and 
continues to be, heavily discussed in the network community and within 
pertinent judicial institutions. This paper chooses to focus instead on the 
organization(s) that will be created or assigned to enforce the law within 
cyberspace. The concept of a netlaw(3) enforcement agency leads to questions 
of how and what they will monitor, and what their power will be in a 
multi-national(4) judicial arena. More significantly, the final organization 
of cyberspace itself will be dictated by this agency, and even by the 
perception of the agency before its existence.
	Does the matrix even require netpolice? To many, the concept of a multi-
national police force that monitors our computer-based communications and, 
taking it the next logical step with white collar crime, monitors us, recalls 
visions of George Orwells 1984. Many people reasonably believe that netpolice 
are not required: any violations of the law can be handled by already existing 
courts and judicial systems. This belief, though well intentioned, has been 
proven wrong: most recently by the U.S. Secret Service in Operation Sun Devil. 
In an attempt to apply existing laws, they seized computer equipment from 
potential criminals and then brought these suspects to court in order to 
obtain monetary recompense for AT&T, U.S. Sprint, American Express and others. 
What resulted was an almost complete indictment of the U.S. Secret Service by 
the matrix community. The actions of the U.S. Secret Service ended up almost 
bankrupting a company that was never under investigation while costing the 
government thousands of dollars and man hours to discover that many suspects 
were completely innocent, if not unjustly accused.
	This type of unfocused enforcement will continue regardless of advances 
in the judicial arena. Most people presently involved in making and enforcing 
the laws are ignorant of the matrix, and, to a large extent, of computer 
technology.

		...one can imagine the government's problem. This is all 
		pretty magical stuff to them. If I were trying to terminate 
		the operations of a witch coven, I'd probably seize everything 
		in sight. How would I tell the ordinary household brooms from 
		the getaway vehicles?
									- John Perry Barlow

	With the migration of real world persons into the matrix, netpolice are 
required for the survival of the system. Wouldnt you rather have someone who 
knows and can understand netlaw watching over you so that another Operation 
Sun Devil cannot occur? Wouldnt you be more at ease knowing that persons 
violating laws in the matrix have a better chance of being caught by the 
netpolice, who not only understand the law but operate within the matrix and 
spend most of their time online? The challenges to the current matrix 
community are constructive criticism of Operation Sun Devil (and similar 
actions by the government and its agencies) and the	development of a concept 
of netpolice that can evolve in the interim until the arrival of cyberspace.

1. The term matrix denotes the Internet (with its multitude of gateways and 
connected nets), all bbs systems, lans, wans, and any other networks that may 
someday become cyberspace.
2. The term real refers to what people consider to be daily life and the 
associated judicial systems.
3. Present laws in all countries will have to be changed before a highly 
productive cyberspace can be realized. Further, new laws (or simply rules 
of etiquette) will have to be specially created for cyberspace and its 
inhabitants. I have included both of these types of law under the term 
netlaw.
4. Any organization that will try to monitor the net must be multi-national, 
if not global, in nature. Presently the U.S. has experienced the problem of 
apprehending perpetrators who have acted from within another countrys 
boundary. I expect that this type of activity will become more pronounced 
in the coming years.
