Use of the Internet Network or Any Other Ways of Replication of Information Prohibited as a Qualifying Crime Element

Abstract

The research is aimed at substantiating the need to use a qualifying element “with the use of information and telecommunication networks” in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to strengthen criminal responsibility for certain crimes related to the dissemination of prohibited information, and at formulating proposals for optimizing the criminal law protection of information security. The methodology deals with implementing knowledge from various branches of science, including information theory and jurisprudence. Traditional methods of jurisprudence are utilized simultaneously in an active manner. The results: The investigation underlines the significance of the criminal-law-related protection of the information space against the dissemination of information prohibited; reveals the possibilities of defining crimes as aggravated;—analyzes the cases of the use of the qualifying element “committing a crime with the use of information and telecommunication networks”;—checks the article on the equivalence of influence on the level of public danger of the crimes of the given element and the element “committing a crime by means of the media”;—confirms that the heterogeneity of the resources of the Internet or other networks cannot serve as an argument for denying such equivalence;—emphasizes the need to take into account such properties of these technologies as accessibility for the mass audience, relative anonymity of the user, remote functioning and transboundary nature in assessing the public danger of crimes committed with the use of information and telecommunication networks;—proves the need to assign the status of a qualifying element to the use of information and telecommunications networks in relation to such crimes as slander, public calls for the outbreak of an aggressive war and the rehabilitation of Nazism;—reveals technical and legal deficiencies of the criminal law description of the qualifying element being analyzed; and—determines the ways of their elimination. Methodology The methodology of the research involves knowledge from various branches of science including information theory and jurisprudence. At the same time, traditional methods of jurisprudence including the structured system analysis of criminal law, formal and logical proofs, etc. are utilized in an active manner. The conclusion draws the following inferences: (1) findings on the expediency of using the qualifying element being analyzed both to reflect one of the typical variants of the public way of committing a crime or the demonstrative nature of the latter and to take into account the exceptional characteristics of the distribution of prohibited information by means of information and telecommunication technologies; (2) recommendations to eliminate the shortcomings of criminal legislation related to the consolidation of the qualifying element “with the use of information and telecommunication networks”.