Legal Framework Poster

Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances.

Tutorial question

1.Linda was stunned in front of her PC when she received an electronic mail, in a chain of senders and receivers, telling bad things about herself, her crazy shopping habits, her domestic problems and her involvement in superstitious activities with a bomoh (magician) allegedly for gaining her more wealth and fortunes. She is now thinking to pursue legal action for this unfavorable for Linda.


According to The Electronic Frontier Foundation, defamation is a false and unprivileged statement of fact that is harmful to someone's reputation, and published "with fault," meaning as a result of negligence or malice. Libel is a written defamation while slander is a spoken defamation. It is also a false statement, presented as fact either deliberately intended to harm your reputation or as the result of negligence.

The elements that must be proved to establish defamation are included
1.a publication to one other than the person defamed;
2.a false statement of fact;
3.that is understood as
a. being of and concerning the plaintiff; and
b. tending to harm the reputation of plaintiff.
4.If the plaintiff is a public figure, he or she must also prove actual malice.

Linda can actually take the case to court, but she has to consult online reputation expert to help her as well. She is actually being protected under the law of defamation which concerned with protecting the reputation of individual, corporation or other legal person from the harm caused by the communication of untrue statements to a third party. All the claims from the email can consider as a publication of permanent form as, according to the Law of Defamation Act 1957, Section (3) For the purpose of the law of libel and slander the broadcasting of words by means of radio communication shall be treated as publication in a permanent form. As for the severance of defences, in Section (19), Whenever in any action of libel the plaintiff sues more than one defendant, whether jointly, severally, or in the alternative, each defendant may file a separate statement of his case and appear at the trial by separate counsel or if he thinks fit, apologize or pay money into court or make other amends, whatever may be the defences set up by his co-defendants, and the plaintiff may accept such apology, money, or other amends and settle or compromise the suit and discontinue the action as between himself and one or more defendants without reference to the other defendants: Provided always that the rights and interests of the other defendant or defendants shall not in any way be prejudiced thereby.


2.Tommy, a multimedia student at MMU, was caught by University authority after it was found that he had cracked the university’s information system, defaced the front page of University’s official website and stolen a bulk of confidential data regarding student’s academic records. It was also discovered that he had attempted to break several lecturers’ computer system but without avail. On the investigation he said that all his action was just for fun exploring the system’s weakness and without any criminal intention. In this case, advise the University regarding Tommy’s liabilities arising from his actions with reference to the law of computer crimes in Malaysia.

Tommy had cracked the University’s information system which can lead him to guilty as base on CCA Section 3(1): A person shall be guilty of an offence if (a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer; (b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorized; and (c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case. If Tommy is guilty under this section, he is liable to a maximum RM 50,000.00 fine or to 5 years imprisonment or to both.

Another wrongful act which Tommy defaced the front page the University’s official website and stolen a bulk of confidential data regarding students’ academic records can actually lead to punishable with a maximum RM 100,000.00 fine or to 7 years imprisonment or to both as according to CCA Section 5(1): A person shall be guilty of an offence if he does any act which he knows will cause unauthorized modification of the contents of any computer. If the act is done with further intention of causing injury, Tommy can be punished up to RM 150,000.00 fine or 10 years imprisonment or both.

Although Tommy said that all his action was just for fun exploring the system’s weaknesses and without any criminal intention. However, base on CCA Section(3), recreational hacking, unauthorized access to computer, computer system and computer network, computer cracking to explore loopholes in the system and system intrusion are the acts which prohibited in the provision as well.

instigate

Mr. Fu’s son a 7-year-old boy, named Alex, he is a naughty boy, always break other’s window, and pick the flower and small trees. Once, Alex play with his neighbor near the road, he saw a person move a mirror with trolley, his neighbor said: “dare you break the mirror?” After his neighbor says that, Alex use stone break the mirror witch worth 400. The owner was very angry and asks Mr. Fu to pay the money of the mirror, but Mr. Fu thinks that, his son was a little boy, he break the mirror because of his neighbor, so his neighbor must pay the mirror not him.

personal Analysis: The mirror should paid by Mr. Fu, because his son just a 7-year-old boy, he made the mistake because his parent not teach him well, his father is the legal guardian of Alex, so Mr. Fu should pay the mirror. Mr. Fu has the responsibility to pay the mirror.Learn form the case: break others thing is an illegal behavior, and if the person who breaks others thing is not above 10-year-old, this is the responsibility of his legal guardian.

case

One company arranges a sale for Jan 1st. The manager puts a notice in the store window on top of a air-condition "SALE - only 200rm. absolutely first come first served."so Ail waits outside the store throughout the night and is first in a long queue on Jan 1st. At 8.30am the manger removes air-condition and sign from the shop window.At 9.ooam the doors open. Ail rushes in and says to the manager: "Here is 200rm." The manager replies: "I'm sorry but that item is no longer for sale".

Personal opinions:
In this case, it could be an offer, because, the words "absolutely first come first served" indicate an intent to be immediately bound.
Also, it is an ITT - the wording is vague. What is "this TV"? How do you determine who is the "first come"? What does "first served" mean?
So ail can suit the company.

Offer and accept

Offer
Each contract requires an offer and Acceptance of that offer。
To constitute a contract, there must be an offer by one person to another and an acceptance of that offer by the person to whom it is made. A mere statement of a person's intention, or a declaration of his willingness to enter into negotiations is not an offer and cannot be accepted so as to form a valid contract
An offer must be a clear, unequivocal and direct approach to another party to contract.

Acceptance
Acceptance validates the contract; it gives it life. It is at that moment that a contract exists; that there is consensus ad idem(assuming a valid offer and consideration). It also must be clear, unequivocal, unconditional and made by the person to whom the offer is intended.
It is not enough to say that you find the offer to be "agreeable"; you must "accept" the offer although your acceptance can be implied by your conduct. It must also be brought to the direct attention of the offeror before a valid contract exists.

Goods displayed in a shop window or on a shelf.
When a book is placed in a shop window priced at RM9, the bookshop owner has made an invitation to treat(ITT)
When I pick up that book and take it to the till, I make the offer to buy the book for 9RM
When the person at the till takes my money, the shop accepts my offer, and a contract comes into being.
Adverts basically work in the same way as the scenario above. Advertising something is like putting it in a shop window.

More details：
http://tutor2u.net/law/notes/contract-conditions-warranties.html
http://www.e-lawresources.co.uk/Offer-and-acceptance.php

In China news paper, I found this case

One day, Mr. Ding driving his car cross an arch-bridge at midnight, he didn’t notice that there is a man lay on the bridge and drunk a lot(Mr. Li), because the arch-bridge block his eyesight and it is too dark outside, so he crash Mr. Li. After that, he shut down the car, and go to check if Mr. Li dead. He is so nervous and afraid, so he escapes from the crime scene. Finally, Mr. Li was founded and sent to hospital by someone, but it is too late, after the rescue, he died. Medicolegal expertise: Mr. Li died due to visceral injury, traumatic hemorrhagic shock and death. After the police reconnaissance, the place where Mr. Li lay on is hard be found when Mr. Ding crosses the arch-bridge, even though Mr. Ding can notice that Mr. Li lay down on the bridge, it is also hard to stop as soon as possible.

Personal opinions:
This case should divide into 2 parts: 1 Mr. Ding crash Mr. Li. 2 Mr. Ding hit-and-run driving.
1 Actually Mr. Ding Crash is just an accidents and he is not on purpose.
2 Mr. Ding hit-and-run driving, it is constitution of a crime. The constitution of the committing traffic offences is the person break traffic regulations and makes a very bad result. But Mr. Ding didn’t break traffic regulations, so can’t be judged as committing traffic offence. But for the humanitarianism, Mr. Ding didn’t send Mr. Li to the hospital, was a terrible behavior.

Clarence Earl Gideon

Clarence Earl Gideon was a poor drifter accused in a Florida state court of felony theft. His case resulted in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright, holding that a criminal defendant who cannot afford to hire a lawyer must be provided with a lawyer at no cost.
At Gideon’s first trial, he represented himself, and he was convicted. After the Supreme Court ruled that the state had to provide defense counsel for the indigent, Florida retried Gideon. At his second trial, with a lawyer representing him and bringing out for the jury the weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, Gideon was acquitted.

Personal opinions:
The behavior of Clarence Earl Gideon was very influential to all America, because he can struggle with American Law without money, power, and education. He is a very brave man, and showed us that, law need to be improved and renew without stop, because people changed everyday, society changed everyday, so the law also need to change. And this case told us, if a poor man can’t find a lawyer for him, he will be treated unequally, unless the court find a lawyer for him, so this case remind us, keep our legal right every time, and study more business knowledge, and also caution to the law enforcement officials, treat everyone equally no matter his rich or poor.