They also often don't understand how serious these activities may be. A close friend of mine, one of the first cyberspace lawyers in the United States and very tech-smart, called me recently complaining about his children. Apparently they had found his credit card information stored in a computer file for easy access. My friend was able to cancel the order before too much damage was done. Knowing a lot about computers doesn't always prepare you for what your kids, or their friends, will dream up next.
Many people forget that the laws that apply on the ground apply equally in cyberspace.
U.S. and international intellectual property laws and treaties protect copyrighted material. And copyrighted material doesn't have to have been filed with the Copyright Office to be protected by the copyright laws. Under intellectual property laws, if you write it and publish it . Recent changes in the U.S. copyright laws, to bring them in line with the world community, make copyright infringement a crime, even if the infringement was not for the purposes of making a profit. Many kids swap software, trading a copy they have of something for a copy someone else has of whatever they want.