Tougher laws needed to fight 'counterfeit reality'

Tougher global laws must be passed to prevent criminals creating "an entire world of digital forgeries" that will become virtually impossible to distinguish from reality.

The rise of so-called 'counterfeit reality' will lead to disputes over interpretations of social, political, legal and business realities that the judicial system and other institutions of conflict resolution are not equipped to resolve, analyst Gartner has warned.

Gartner defines counterfeit reality as the digital creation of images, video, documents or sounds that are convincingly realistic representations of events that never occurred or never existed exactly as represented.

In the past, it was reasonable to assume that a photograph was good enough evidence to "establish a reality" in a court, according to Gartner. Photographs are scrutinised by experts in court, but few people know how to spot an enhanced, forged or fake image.

"Laws covering admissibility of electronic documents in courts will need to be revamped to anticipate superior digital forgeries," explained Daryl Plummer, group vice president and chief fellow at Gartner, in a statement.

"Approaches to document verification, privacy legislation, digital rights management, and protection of intellectual property will need to be revolutionised over time."

According to Gartner, current laws are inadequate to halt the abuses. "Fake reality for sale will be the norm in the next decade," said Plummer.

"Surprisingly, its growth will not be about technology, but about society's propensity for allowing the deviant to become the norm.

"As people come to expect the use of virtual technology instead of real-time human interaction, the psychological outrage expected with counterfeit reality will be diminished."