Internet, Technology Outpacing Rules, Regulations

The Internet has become a cyber version of the Wild West, where few rules exist to curb an enthusiastic fight about ownership and ideas.

The ease of communicating and marketing via the Internet has brought about a pitched struggle for copyrights, trademarks and other money-making endeavors.

"It's just that the law doesn't cover the latest technology -- Facebook or Twitter or Kindle," said Ian O'Neill, an attorney with Holland and Hart who is building a niche practice focused on the Internet and business law. "It's definitely a growth area -- growing exponentially on a weekly basis, especially increasing in areas relating to Web 2.0."

Recent law only covers who's responsible for items posted on Web sites, he said. It assumes a relationship between two entities -- the Web site owner and the person posting on the Web. But the Internet is a vastly more complicated place these days.

"Someone can still post something, and it gets repeated in tweets, copied onto Facebook pages, and there's no recourse," he said. "You can ask that they take it down, and Facebook will, but by that time, it's been copied a thousand times over."