Social media and electronic communications dominate modern life. Workplaces have been transformed by email, teleconferencing and an array of new applications, along with our homes and social lives. Fewer people today, go to a travel agent to book flights, subscribe to newspaper delivery, or even watch free-to-air television. All of this can be done more conveniently and with greater individual choice and control online, often guided by social media applications to channel information, in ways not mediated or filtered as in the past. Social relationships have changed along the way, with many people now exchanging texts rather than speaking face-to-face or by phone.

The internet, social media, smartphones and encryption have radically changed the way goods are bought, sold and advertised. In doing so, they have opened up new markets and increased economic opportunities, enabling advertising to reach a global and more targeted audience. Individuals can start an online business or take on a second job more easily than ever before. Technology has disrupted many areas of the economy. Digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, have facilitated encrypted online transactions without the need for processing by a third party such as a bank. Blockchain technology has enabled contracts to be executed online instead of requiring a hard copy to be signed by the parties as a means of verifying an agreement. Online businesses have emerged to disrupt traditional models in a range of sectors, including transportation, where ride- sharing apps have challenge taxis; accommodation, in the form of apps used to book private homes or rooms for short stays; and online clothing retailers that can offer substantially reduced prices with minimal rent and staffing costs. Developments such as these raise a number of legal and regulatory issues; for example, digital currencies may increase opportunities for fraud and create challenges for law enforcement agencies investigating online distributors of illegal drugs. In considering the issues associated with law, technology and commerce, this chapter begins with a discussion of digital currencies, and then proceeds to examine online markets and services, electronic contracting, and changes brought by new technology for professional services and other businesses. Emerging issues such as anti-competitive practices are also discussed.

Intellectual property involves the legal protection of inventions and other creative products. Its main categories are patents, copyright and trade marks, with related forms of protection also covering designs, circuit layouts, plant breeders’ rights, domain names and trade secrets. Some intellectual property rights attach automatically to a novel invention or creation, while others require registration in a publicly administered system, depending on the jurisdiction. Protection is typically limited to a specified time, with extension possible in some systems. What is offered to creators is an incentive to make potentially beneficial advances available to the public, rather than be kept secret or for private use only, by way of a limited monopoly.

The rapid growth of information and communications technology over the past two decades, including email, the internet, smartphones, social media, messaging applications and global positioning systems, has enhanced our ability to obtain and share information about the world. However, in the rush to secure the latest mass-produced technology device, many people give relatively less consideration to the implications for the security of the data that they produce and the consequential impact on individual privacy. That data is of great value in the corporate sector, to inform marketing strategies; and to governments to understand the behaviour of their citizens. As was noted in Chapter 1, developments in the past decade, such as the Snowden revelations, and the activities of the former political strategy firm Cambridge Analytica, have increased awareness of the implications of inadequate privacy protections. However, the convenience of new technologies may take precedence for many.

The growth of cybercrime, social media misuse and online intellectual property infringement discussed in the preceding three chapters presents new and significant challenges for regulating these aspects of technology law. Conducting investigations, determining jurisdictional scope and prosecuting offences all require a degree of adaptation, as compared to traditional areas of the law. The contrast between investigating a robbery from a bricks-and-mortar store on the one hand and the hacking of an e-commerce company’s trade secrets is vast.

We began with the observation that technology law, as defined by this text, is now an important field in its own right. This importance will continue to grow as the progress of technology and its application in society continues to create gaps in the legal framework that require regulation. No-one can predict exactly what new technologies are coming, what their implications will be, or what laws will be needed, but by studying theoretical approaches to ethics and regulation and the legal problems that have arisen to date, and how these have been responded to, we are better prepared to deal with future challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 provides a stark reminder that unanticipated events can change the societal landscape in a matter of weeks and provide compelling reasons for technologies to be quickly applied in new ways. This concluding chapter will consider the future directions of technology law by reflecting on technology and society, noting the areas of law and regulation that have been covered, and reflecting on themes that have arisen.

In recent decades, the regulation of technology and associated information has become an important and topical area of law, relevant to almost all aspects of society. Issues in technology law typically extend beyond specific jurisdictions and have state, national and international implications. Developments in one jurisdiction rapidly have international ramifications, due to the connectedness facilitated by the internet and modern communications technology. The areas of the law that are evolving due to technological developments are diverse: a preliminary list would include finance law, criminal law, medical law, media law and privacy law. New technology creates challenges, because when it becomes available, new regulatory gaps arise. For example, the emergence of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has required public agencies to issue guidelines as to whether they constitute forms of currency, and whether dealings using them are subject to taxation laws.1 Another example is the legislation enacted in the early 2000s to regulate the use of DNA evidence in criminal investigations. When these laws were enacted, the use of commercial ancestry databases and other modern techniques in genetic analysis to identify suspects in some high-profile contemporary cases was not envisaged.2

One of the more challenging intersections of law and technology is the use of computers and associated systems to commit criminal offences. While terminology varies, the neologism cybercrime is widely used to refer to a range of offending that involves computers as targets (eg hacking); as instruments (eg online fraud and forgery); or as incidental to the commission of a crime (eg using the internet to plan or organise a more conventional crime).1 As noted in Chapter 2, some cybercrimes are essentially the same as their ‘terrestrial’ counterparts, but adopt modern technology for their commission (ie ‘old wine in new bottles’), while others represent significantly newer forms of criminality. Examples of the former might include cyberstalking and online fraud, where the message is much the same but the means of communication is more efficient; while the latter might include distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against websites.

This chapter examines science and technology from a regulatory and theoretical perspective, providing an important background to the substantive issues discussed throughout the text. The first part of the chapter looks at regulatory theory as it relates to technology, beginning with the general approach of John Braithwaite, and then at more recent approaches to information technology and the internet, specifically the ‘law is code’ approach of Lawrence Lessig and its further development by Andrew Murray. Next, the chapter examines political theory, considering the relationship between individuals and societies – how the behaviour of citizens is best managed according to competing interests, and how governments should legislate to manage these interests. The third part of the chapter examines the basic theories of ethical reasoning, deontology and consequentialism. Lastly, the chapter discusses the nature of scientific knowledge that underlies technology, and how scientific knowledge becomes established.

For over a century, the field of forensic science has been applying contemporary technology to the investigation of crime. The imperative to identify offenders, particularly in relation to serious offences, has meant that governments are willing to invest in new technologies to achieve this objective. Fingerprinting, first developed in the late 19th century to identify individuals based on the unique patterns on the fingertips, led the way as one of the earliest means of identifying people, and is still used today in a digitised format.

Technology offers a means of developing new therapies to treat human illness and has great potential to reduce suffering and increase living standards around the world. For this reason, there is a large investment in research and development for new pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and the healthcare sector is rich with new forms of technology and legal issues associated with them. Fields such as genomics, the study of the genome, are providing a more detailed understanding of human health, ranging from cardiovascular diseases to cancer, along with improved methods of prevention and treatment. Assisted reproductive technologies are giving couples who would otherwise not have been able to have children the opportunity to do so, and allowing serious conditions to be identified earlier during, or even prior to, a pregnancy. Stem cell technologies will lead to replacement organs and body parts in coming decades, and already form the basis of treatments for serious conditions such as leukaemia and myeloma. Artificial intelligence is already transforming areas of medicine such as radiology and pathology: screening images for disease and other abnormalities under the supervision of doctors, saving time and improving access to healthcare for patients in rural and remote areas.