E-Commerce Law & Policy

Volume: 1 Issue: 6
(June 1999)

News

A UK Court decided that a man responsible for running a pornographic website located in the US was liable under British law for publishing obscene material. / read more

The European Commission is considering adopting two proposals that combined could provide a severe blow to the development of a single european market for e–commerce claim senior european industry and legal figures. / read more

The UK government’s e–commerce policy has been knocked off course once again as the long awaited Electronic Communications Bill looks set to be delayed until November 1999. / read more

Features

THE DEVELOPMENT of the legal framework for e–commerce was never going to be easy. Events of the last few weeks underline just how difficult it can become. / read more

The recent six–figure settlement between British Gas and Andrew Duffield and his company Exoteric Gas Solutions (EGS) in respect of a libellous e-mail has highlighted both the potentially wide liability of companies for defamatory e-mails and the need for more stringent company policies on the use of e-mail by its employees. / read more

After a decade of fragmented data protection regimes around Europe, the EU authorities managed in 1990 to put together a draft directive aimed at creating a harmonised data protection framework. / read more

In March 1996, the Home Office announced that the Government was determined to implement the Directive in a way which minimised legislative effort. / read more

Universal accessibility - the central attraction of a web presence to financial services providers - is also the financial services regulators’ greatest headache. Regulators prefer the discriminating, individual approach to the broad brush of the Web; their central concern is to ensure that advertisements for financial services are, as a rule, distributed only by authorised persons, and that some adverts reach only those whose experience or status enable them to make judgements about whether or not to buy. For the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority, regulating the internet is rather like regulating sky-writing. / read more

‘About 846 million new CDs were sold last year. But at least 17 million MP3 files are downloaded from the Net each day.’ (Wired, August 1999).

No one disputes that digital delivery of copyright content is set for explosive growth. It is precisely that knowledge that makes the current debate about the exception in Article 5.1 of the draft Copyright Directive so vital to content owners and distributors. / read more

The European Union regulatory frame work for E–commerce has recently come under threat from a proposal adopted by the Commission to adopt the 1968 Brussels Convention on jurisdiction (‘Brussels Regulation’) and a new draft Rome II Convention on contractual liability (‘Rome Regulation’) as EU regulations pursuant to new powers under Article 65 of the Amsterdam Treaty. The proposals for the Brussels Regulation and the Rome Regulation completely contradict the Commissions proposals for a legislative framework to regulate E–commerce at an EU level as contained in the E–commerce directive. / read more

The Canadian government has been one of the first governments in the world to develop a clear e-commerce strategy. This article, which was first presented as a talk to the International Commerce Exchange conference in Dublin outlines the Canadian strategy, with particular reference to cryptography / read more

On 30 June 1999, the Australian Parliament passed the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999). This Act makes content hosts and service providers liable for content they carry. The Act has been intricately crafted. This article only paints a general picture of its application. / read more

US Banking regulator, John D Hawke Junior, Comptroller of the Currency last month made a strong attack on the practice of some US banks of selling personal data about their clients. / read more

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has ruled that Porsche Cars North America Inc must proceed individually against the registrants of 138 domain names. / read more

A California Appeal Court has ruled that the hosting of a web site by a California Internet service provider does not of itself give the California Courts jurisdiction over the web site. / read more

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About E-Commerce Law & Policy:

The monthly law journal giving authoratitive insights into all aspects of e-commerce law and regulations affecting online business, including domain names, Intellectual property, copyrights, online advertising, behavourial advertising, cloud computing, net neutrality, privacy, cybercrime, social media, trademarks, online sales, licensing and software / read more