Strict or Vicarious Liability to Minimize Fraud, Bribery and Corruption

I agree that strict or vicarious liability will minimise fraud, bribery and corruption. This reminded me of my previous café job. Our staff benefits includes unlimited ice-cream during work, but some staffs went overboard by not charging their friends when they patronised the café. Thus, the boss threatened to deduct our salaries should there be any significant variance in the sales and ice-cream quantity. This almost eradicated the issue when the responsibility was shifted to us to ensure others avoid committing such acts.

The major business crime categories include white-collar crime, organised crime, computer crime and regulatory, corporate and compliance offences (Latimer, 2012). An example is the Dark Web where cybercriminals anonymously seeks into the market to purvey illicit goods such as drugs, weapons, counterfeit, trade secrets and copyrighted, falsified or stolen documents (Pierce, Ballard, & Nguyen, 2016). Anonymity is furthered by the use of Bitcoin, a digital currency that’s untraceable to any single person. Such crimes will be minimised as Internet Service Providers (ISP) are vicariously liable if they have the right and ability to control the activity and profits from the infringement (Teran, n.d.). This was illustrated in the US case where ISP Cox Communications was ordered to pay $25 million to BMG Rights Management LLC for the copyright infringement of its subscribers, which engaged in illegal peer-to-peer sharing of music files using Cox’s internet services (Hoover, 2015). 

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Useful Links

Article:

• Silk Road sentence sets dangerous precedent
• 26 Crazy Things You Can Buy on the Dark Web

YouTube:

References

Hoover, J. (17 December, 2015). Cox Must Pay BMG $25M For User Piracy, Jury Finds. Retrieved from Law 360: https://www.law360.com/articles/739353/cox-must-pay-bmg-25m-for-user-piracy-jury-finds

Latimer, P. (2012). Crime In the Business World. In P. Latimer, Australian Business Law 2012 (p. 96). Australia: CCH Australia Limited.

Pierce, J. E., Ballard, M., & Nguyen, T. X. (2016). Global brand and content protection: developments and emerging technologies. Retrieved from World Trademark Review: http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/Intelligence/Anti-counterfeiting/2016/Industry-insight/Global-brand-and-content-protection-developments-and-emerging-technologies

Teran, G. (n.d.). ISP Liability for Copyright Infringement. Retrieved from Harvard: https://cyber.harvard.edu/property99/liability/main.html