Civil Disobedience Online

Abstract

In its simplest form civil disobedience involves defying the law for a good cause. It is therefore essentially a conflict between the law and the individual's morality. The purpose of this article is to look at the use of civil disobedience in online environments to understand what civil disobedience is and if it can be implemented as a political force in the online domain. It is not the purpose of this article to attempt to explain the substantive legislation regulating each of the illegal activities. However it is important to describe the acts which we intend to discuss from the point of view of the legislator. The purpose of this is to give a brief introduction to the activity and its conflict with the legal regime. While there is a growing consensus in online criminal law this article maintains a mainly European Union & United Kingdom focus.

Keywords: civil disobedience, webpage defacement, denial of service, email bombing