Highway Robbery

Publisher Description

The rider sprang off as light as a cat and pulled the reins over the horse's head. Then he marched straight over to me and put them into my hand. "Hold the mare for me, lad. And when I come back, I'll give you a golden guinea." A dark stranger leaves his magnificent horse in the care of a boy he's never met. As dusk falls, others offer to pay the boy handsomely for the animal. Then soldiers arrive, demanding to know where the horse's owner has gone. Could the stranger be the notorious Dick Turpin, known for his daring holdups and amazing exploits? Is the horse the legendary Black Bess? And will the boy ever see the reward he's been promised? There's mischief in the air, but it isn't entirely clear who's causing it.

This book analyzes the expanding crime opportunities created by the Internet and e-commerce, and it explains how concepts of crime prevention developed in other contexts can be effectively applied in this new environment. The authors note that the Internet and associated e-commerce constitute a lawless "wild frontier" where users of the Internet can anonymously exploit and victimize other users without a high risk of being detected, arrested, prosecuted, and punished. For acquisitive criminals who seek to gain money by stealing it from others, e-commerce through the Internet enables them to "hack" their way into bank records and transfer funds for their own enrichment. Computer programs that are readily available for download on the Web can be used to scan the Web for individual computers that are vulnerable to attack. By using the Internet addresses of other users or using another person's or organization's computers or computing environment, criminals can hide their trails and escape detection. After identifying the multiple opportunities for crime in the world of e-commerce, the book describes specific steps that can be taken to prevent e-commerce crime at particular points of vulnerability. The authors explain how two aspects of situational crime prevention can prevent Internet crime. This involves both a targeting of individual vulnerabilities and a broad approach that requires partnerships in producing changes and modifications that can reduce or eliminate criminal opportunities. The authors apply the 16 techniques of situational crime prevention to the points of vulnerability of the e-commerce system. The points of vulnerability are identified and preventive measures are proposed. In discussing the broad approach of institutionalized and systemic efforts to police e-commerce, the book focuses on ways to increase the risks of detection and sanctions for crime without undue intrusions on the freedom and privacy of legitimate Internet and e-commerce users.

In Highway Robbery Peter Kinzler delivers a fast-paced behind-the-scenes account of two federal legislative efforts twenty years apart—one from the political left and one from the right—to reform America’s auto insurance system to make it fairer and more affordable. He explains how the legislation was designed to achieve those objectives and describes the political challenge of trying to overcome the entrenched special interest opposition of those who stood to lose billions—trial lawyers and insurers—if the new no-fault system were adopted. Highway Robbery provides readers with both a primer on how fault and liability auto insurance, no-fault, and no-fault choice insurance policies work and who benefits most from which system. Peter Kinzler, with years of experience as a congressional staffer and in the private sector, is the perfect guide through these important policy and political fights, enlivened with revealing firsthand sketches of the legislators, staffers, academics, and lobbyists who played major roles in these attempts as well as their interplay with each other. Drawing upon his decades of engagement with the issues, Kinzler shows how thoughtful and skilled members of Congress, good staff, and thorough academic research can lay the groundwork for important reform legislation; in doing so he provides a model for restoring Congress’s effectiveness, whenever it chooses to resume exercising its constitutional authority as the legislative branch of government. Highway Robbery details how the trial bar used the levers of political power first to undermine state no-fault laws and then to use the weaknesses they had implemented in the laws to undermine passage of federal legislation. It also describes the surprising alliance in opposition between the trial bar and famed consumer advocate Ralph Nader. No-fault continues to hold the promise of better compensation and dramatic premium reductions, with the largest savings available to those who need them most—low- and moderate-income drivers. The most likely scenario for further federal consideration of auto insurance reform would be in the context of congressional action on universal health insurance.

Why is the highwayman largely perceived as a romantic, glamorous and gallant figure? How is it that men who were really nothing more than bandits, who were often gratuitously violent, sometimes murderers and rapists as well, have become the swashbuckling heroes of history? To put their roles in context, the book probles into the economic, social and technological factors that at certain times made highway robbery highly lucrative and which help to explain why some of its exponents eventually disappeared from the scene. Finally, the legacy of the highwayman on pub signs, in films and in fiction is discussed. Informative, stimulating and entertaining, from the pen of a true enthusiast, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the dramatic, murky underworld of history.

In this new computer age, how can an artist tell if an image belongs to someone else? How can a multimedia producer tell if a film clip is in the public domain? Answering these and other crucial questions, graphic artist Mary E. Carter provides a complete, authoritative guide to copyright law as it applies to the digital arts.