Mag. Balazs Esztegar LL.M.
Attorney-at-law Vienna


Piaristengasse 41/10
1080 Vienna, Austria
Tel. +43 1 997 4102
Fax +43 1 997 4102-99
office@esztegar.at

Internet Law

Although this would be suggested by the freedom without borders and by anonymity, internet is by far not a space without legal regulation. First of all, any acts carried out in the internet are basically covered by the same statutory provisions which apply also to "offline" actions. In addition, the number of statutory norms dealing exactly with  the online area and regulating the various forms of manifestation thereof like e.g. internet business-making is strongly increasing. This is valid also for e.g. the e-commerce, i.e. the online distribution of goods or services.

 

However, due to the omnipresence of the internet as a medium people are confronted to the problems raised by the internet law also in lots of other sectors of life, as this occurs frequently in the social networks or prohibited spam mails.

A person creating online his or her website must deal with the issues of online law, thus e.g. with the site notice (imprint) or with the provider’s responsibility. The enforcement of claims against infringing conducts in the internet (keyword: warning) often belongs to the field of activities of an attorney at law specialised in online law, let’s say due to the violation of copyright or of the trademark law.

Finally, certain kinds of conduct in the internet may also be punished by penal law, where "hacking" is by far not the sole form of internet criminality. Much more frequent are the attempts at fraud and blackmailing, or cyberstalking, which is often particularly unpleasant for the victims.