This research study examines the forensic application of a selection of stylistic and stylometric techniques in a simulated authorship attribution case involving texts on the social networking site, Facebook. Eight participants each submitted 2,000 words of self-authored text from their personal Facebook messages, and one of them submitted an extra 2,000 words to act as the ‘disputed text’. The texts were analysed in terms of the first 1,000 words received and then at the 2,000-word level to determine what effect text length has on the effectiveness of the chosen style markers (keywords, function words, most frequently occurring words, punctuation, use of digitally mediated communication features and spelling). It was found that despite accurately identifying the author of the disputed text at the 1,000-word level, the results were not entirely conclusive but at the 2,000-word level the results were more promising, with certain style markers being particularly effective. / Linguistics / MA (Linguistics)

E-commerce is growing rapidly due to the massive usage of the Internet to conduct commercial transactions. This growth has presented both customers and merchants with many advantages. However, one of the challenges in E-commerce is information security. In order to mitigate e-crime, the South African government promulgated laws that contain information security legal aspects that should be integrated into the establishment of information security. Although several authors have written about legal and policy aspects regarding information security in the South African context, it has not yet been explained how these aspects are used in the provision of information security in the South African corporate environment. This is the premise upon which the study was undertaken. Forty-five South African organisations participated in this research. Data gathering methods included individual interviews, website analysis, and document analysis. The findings of this study indicate that most organisations in South Africa are not integrating legal aspects into their information security policies. One of the most important outcomes of this study is the proposed Concept Model of Legal Compliance in the Corporate Environment. This Concept Model embodies the contribution of this study and demonstrates how legal requirements can be incorporated into information security endeavours. The fact that the proposed Concept Model is technology-independent and that it can be implemented in a real corporate environment, regardless of the organisation’s governance and management structure, holds great promise for the future of information security in South Africa and abroad. Furthermore, this thesis has generated a topology for linking legislation to the provision of information security which can be used by any academic or practitioner who intends to implement information security measures in line with the provisions of the law. It is on the basis of this premise that practitioners can, to some extent, construe that the integration of legislation into information security policies can be done in other South African organisations that did not participate in this study. Although this study has yielded theoretical, methodological and practical contributions, there is, in reality, more research work to be done in this area. / School of Computing / D. Phil. (Information Systems)

The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 25 of 2002, eradicated various lacunae that previously existed in respect of cyber crimes. Cyber crimes such as inter alia hacking, rogue code, unauthorised modification of data and denial of service attacks have now been criminalised. Specific criminal provisions in relation to spamming, computer-related fraud and extortion have also been included in the Act. It is argued that theft of incorporeal items such as information has already been recognised in our law, but has not been taken to its logical conclusion in our case law. However, there are instances where neither the common law nor our statutory provisions are applicable and where there is still a need for legislative intervention. The Act sufficiently deals with jurisdiction, the admissibility of data messages, the admissibility of electronic signatures and the regulation of cryptography. Cyber inspectors are a new addition to law enforcement. / Jurisprudence / L. L. M.

Die wêreld soos dit vandag bestaan, is gebaseer op die Internasionaalregtelike konsep van soewereiniteit. State het die bevoegdheid om hulle eie sake te reël, maar die ontwikkeling van die Internet as ’n netwerk wat globaal verspreid is, het hierdie beginsel verontagsaam. Dit wou voorkom asof die Internet die einde van soewereiniteit en staatskap sou beteken. ’n Geskiedkundige oorsig toon dat reguleerders aanvanklik onseker was oor hoe hierdie nuwe medium hanteer moes word. Dit het geblyk dat nuwe tegnologieë wat fragmentasie van die Internet bewerkstellig, gebruik kon word om staatsgebonde regsreëls af te dwing. Verskeie state van die wêreld het uiteenlopende metodologieë gevolg om die Internet op staatsvlak te probeer reguleer, en dit het tot die lukraak-wyse waarop die Internet tans gereguleer word, aanleiding gegee. Hierdie studie bespreek verskeie aspekte van regsbeheer in die konteks van die Internet, en bepaal daardeur hoe die Internet tans gereguleer word. Toepaslike wetgewing van verskeie state word regdeur die studie bespreek. Vier prominente state, wat verskeie belangrike ingrepe ten aansien van Internetregulering gemaak het, word verder uitgelig. Dit is die Verenigde State van Amerika, die Volksrepubliek van Sjina, die Europese Unie as verteenwoordiger van Europese state, en Suid-Afrika. Aspekte wat op Internasionaalregtelike vlak aangespreek moet word, soos internasionale organisasies en internasionale regsteorieë ten aansien van die regulering van die Internet, word ook onder die loep geneem. Die bevindings wat uit die studie volg, word gebruik om verskeie aanbevelings te maak, en die aanbevelings word uiteindelik in ’n nuwe model saamgevoegom’n sinvoller wyse van regulering van die Internet voor te stel. Aangesien die huidige studie in die konteks van die Internasionale reg onderneem word, word die studie afgesluit met ’n bespreking van kubersoewereiniteit, wat ’n uiteensetting is van hoe soewereiniteit ten aansien van die Internet toegepas behoort te word. Die gevolgtrekking is insiggewend — die ontwikkeling van die Internet het nie die einde van soewereiniteit beteken nie, maar het dit juis bevestig. / The world is currently structured in different states, and this is premised on the International law concept of sovereignty. States have the capacity to structure their own affairs, but the development of the Internet as a globally distributed network has violated this principle. It would seem that the development of the Internet would mean the end of sovereignty and statehood. A historical overview shows that regulators were initially unsure of how this new medium should be dealt with. It appeared that new technologies that could fragment the Internet, could be used to enforce state bound law. Several states of the world have used different methodologies trying to regulate the Internet at state level, and this led to the random way in which the Internet is currently regulated. This study examines various aspects of legal regulation in the context of the Internet, and determines how the Internet is currently regulated. Appropriate legislation of several states are discussed throughout the study. Four prominent states, which made several important interventions regarding the regulation of the Internet, are highlighted further. It is the United States, the People’s Republic of China, the European Union as the representative of European countries, and South Africa. Aspects that need to be addressed on International law level, such as international organizations and international legal theories regarding the regulation of the Internet, are also discussed. The findings that follow from this study are used to make several recommendations, which in turn are used to construct a new model for a more meaningful way in which the Internet could be regulated. Since the present study is undertaken in the context of the International law, the study is concluded with a discussion of cyber sovereignty, which is a discussion of how sovereignty should be applied with regards to the Internet. The conclusion is enlightening—the development of the Internet does not indicate the end of sovereignty, but rather confirms it. / Criminal and Procedural Law / LLD

Cyber bullying is a growing phenomenon in schools all over the world, and it is evident that cyber bullying presents certain unique problems for schools in the regulation thereof. From the number of different definitions of cyber bullying, it is also evident that there is no clear concept of the exact nature of cyber bullying, and how it should be addressed in schools. The existing legal framework in South Africa can be used to address cyber bullying in schools, but there is no legislation or policy that is directly aimed at the regulation of cyber bullying at school level. The purpose of this research is to develop a law and policy framework for the effective regulation of cyber bullying in schools. Firstly, a literature review was conducted to determine the nature of cyber bullying and to examine how cyber bullying in American schools is regulated by law. Secondly, a literature study determined the human rights obligations with regard to protecting learners against cyber bullying, and reviewed how current South African law and policy speaks to addressing cyber bullying in schools. In order to investigate the occurrence of cyber bullying in South African schools practically, a case study was conducted at a South African school. All the resources mentioned above were used to develop an education-specific law and policy framework to address cyber bullying in South African schools effectively. This framework includes a suggested insertion in the South African Schools Act, draft Guidelines for the regulation of cyber bullying in schools, draft provisions for schools’ Codes of conduct for learners and an information brochure on cyber bullying. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D.

This study focuses on the use of Social Network Sites (SNSs) and certain personality rights (specifically the right to privacy and the right to identity) that may be infringed by this use. The study also discusses data protection law as the protection of the rights to privacy and identity are interlinked with data protection in that data protection assumes importance when there is processing of personal information on SNSs. The study seeks to determine whether South African law provides adequate protection for the interests that form the object of these personality rights, and highlights certain shortcomings, particularly in the context of SNSs. It also suggests solutions where there are shortcomings by learning from other jurisdictions. Related issues investigated are: who should be held responsible for the user-generated content uploaded on SNSs; the role of the Internet Service Provider (ISP); and how to deal with anonymous defendants. / Private Law / LL. M.

This research study examines the forensic application of a selection of stylistic and stylometric techniques in a simulated authorship attribution case involving texts on the social networking site, Facebook. Eight participants each submitted 2,000 words of self-authored text from their personal Facebook messages, and one of them submitted an extra 2,000 words to act as the ‘disputed text’. The texts were analysed in terms of the first 1,000 words received and then at the 2,000-word level to determine what effect text length has on the effectiveness of the chosen style markers (keywords, function words, most frequently occurring words, punctuation, use of digitally mediated communication features and spelling). It was found that despite accurately identifying the author of the disputed text at the 1,000-word level, the results were not entirely conclusive but at the 2,000-word level the results were more promising, with certain style markers being particularly effective. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Linguistics)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:25:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pedro Nicoletti Mizukami.pdf: 4110055 bytes, checksum: fc8c654e19a713787d727a72bbc67a4e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-06-29 / Noticing that debates concerning the constitutional aspects of copyright are either rare or insufficient in Brazilian legal literature especially when it comes to dealing with themes regarding the current crisis of intellectual property rights we sought out to investigate which answers could be found in the Brazilian Constitution for the problem of file sharing. Starting out from the hypothesis that adequate solutions could be found by understanding the meaning and the extent of the social function of property clause established under art. 5º, XXIII of the Constitution, we adopted Lawrence Lessig s model of four modalities of constraint to frame an interdisciplinary approach to the problem. We chose not to ignore legal dogmatics, but to deal with it in a theoretical environment that prioritizes policy considerations, with the goal of developing an optimal regime of copyright exceptions. We conclude that there is room for an interpretation of the Brazilian Constitution under which file sharing would be legal, along with other practices that are currently considered to constitute copyright infringement. On the other hand, we also conclude that any reasonable interpretation of the Brazilian Constitution would disallow maximalist implementations of copyright law, and that the copyright exception regime established by the Brazilian Copyright Statute (Lei n.º 9.610/98) is not wide enough to meet the demands of the social function of intellectual property, as required by the Constitution. If construed restrictively, the Brazilian Copyright Statute is unconstitutional as far as exceptions are concerned. The theoretical framework that guided our interpretation of the Constitution is based on a Kelsenian approach on a metatheoretical level, under which two different approaches were used on a theoretical level, applied separately and not together, and with different methodological consequences: Friedrich Müller s Strukturiende Rechtslehre and Robert Alexy s theory of fundamental rights / Notando que na literatura jurídica brasileira as discussões em torno das dimensões constitucionais dos direitos autorais são raras e insuficientes, ainda mais em se tratando de temas ligados à atual crise da propriedade intelectual, a presente dissertação procurou investigar quais as respostas que Constituição brasileira poderia oferecer ao fenômeno do compartilhamento de arquivos na Internet, partindo da hipótese de que a delimitação do conteúdo da função social da propriedade, inserida no art. 5º, inciso XXIII da CF/88, poderia oferecer soluções adequadas para o problema. Com fundamentação na teoria das quatro modalidades de regulação de Lawrence Lessig, adotou-se uma abordagem de análise interdisciplinar que não ignora problemas de dogmática jurídica, mas os insere em um plano teórico que privilegia a discussão em torno de quais políticas públicas seriam as mais desejáveis em relação a um regime ideal de exceções aos direitos autorais. Concluiu-se que há espaço para uma interpretação da Constituição que autorizaria a prática do compartilhamento de arquivos, bem como outras condutas afins, argumentando-se, por outro lado, que uma política maximalista de propriedade intelectual extrapola qualquer interpretação razoável da dimensão constitucional dos direitos autorais, e que as limitações implementadas infraconstitucionalmente pela Lei n.º 9.610/98 são insuficientes para suprir o que é exigido pela função social da propriedade intelectual e, conseqüentemente, inconstitucionais se interpretadas restritivamente. No tocante aos aspectos teórico-metodológicos específicos de ciência do direito, optou-se por uma perspectiva kelseniana em um nível metateórico, e a aplicação separada de abordagens distintas no plano teórico: a teoria estruturante de Friedrich Müller, e a teoria dos direitos fundamentais de Robert Alexy, cada qual com suas particulares conseqüências metodológicas

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Digital rights activism constitutes an exemplary case of how internet affordances can be mobilised to engender political change. The values and principles stemming from the hacker imaginaire, and free and open source software practices, underpin digital rights activism, which uses the internet as a tool, object and platform for the protection of rights in the digital realm. The analysis focuses on how digital rights activists use and adapt the political affordances of the internet to intervene in European Union policy-making. Two original case studies of internet-based campaigning at the European level (the “No Software Patents” and the “Telecoms package” campaigns) provide in-depth insight into the campaigning processes and their impact upon parliamentary politics. The cases highlight the complementarity of online and offline collective action, by examining processes of open collaboration, information disclosure and internet-assisted lobbying. The success of the “Telecoms package” campaign is then assessed, along with the perspective of the targets: members and staff of the European Parliament.<p><p>The belief in values of freedom, decentralisation, openness, creativity and progress inspires a particular type of activism, which promotes autonomy, participation and efficiency. The empirical evidence suggests that this set of principles can, at times, conflict with practices observed in the field. This has to do with the particular opportunity structure of the European Union and the characteristics of the movement. The EU favours functional integration of civil society actors who are expected to contribute technical and/or legal expertise. This configuration challenges internet-based protest networks that rely on highly independent and fluctuating engagement, and suffer from a lack of diversity and cohesion. The internet does not solve all obstacles to collective action. It provides, however, a networked infrastructure and tools for organising, coordinating and campaigning. Online and offline actions are not only supportive of each other. Internet-based campaigning can be successful once it reaches out beyond the internet, and penetrates the corridors of political institutions.<p> / Doctorat en Information et communication / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished