Dubai's Web laws to come in four stages

Dubai's evolving laws governing conduct on the Internet will have a third and fourth stages, according to the director-general of Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone (Tecom), which is drafting the regulations.

The third stage will feature broad regulations on transactions or purchases on the Web.

"We are still working on phase two, which is about defining the crimes and penalties that will be imposed on misdemeanours committed by individuals or organisations when dealing on the Internet," said Ahmed bin Byat.

"This is a detailed piece of work and still with us. But it will be forwarded to the Ruler's Court definitely after the summer."

The first stage of Dubai's e-laws was passed last year. Dealing with e-facilitation, the laws are with the prosecutor general and judges are being trained on the nuances, said bin Byat. So far, no case has been brought up under e-facilitation laws.

Bin Byat was talking on the sidelines of a major legal conference - Middle East Law in the Internet Age - at Dubai Internet City.

The two-day conference was presented by the Arab Regional Forum of the International Bar Association, and co-sponsored by the Technology and e-Commerce Law Committee and the Intellectual Property and Entertainment Committee of the Section on Business Law.

Essam Al Tamimi of Al Tamimi and Co and Habib Al Mulla of Habib Al Mulla and Co are among those presenting papers at the conference.