title: Computer ethics and cyber laws to mental health professionals.
abstract: The explosive growth of computer and communications technology raises new legal and ethical challenges that reflect tensions between individual rights and societal needs. For instance, should cracking into a computer system be viewed as a petty prank, as trespassing, as theft, or as espionage? Should placing copyrighted material onto a public file server be treated as freedom of expression or as theft? Should ordinary communications be encrypted using codes that make it impossible for law-enforcement agencies to perform wiretaps? As we develop shared understandings and norms of behaviour, we are setting standards that will govern the information society for decades to come.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, JSS Medical College & Hospital, Ramanuja Road, Mysore-04. raveesh6@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: B N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Raveesh
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pande