E-Commerce Law & Policy

Volume: 10 Issue: 4
(April 2008)

News

A Swedish court (Linköpings Tingsrätt) has successfully prosecuted a 32-year-old man found guilty of sharing 30 films and 4,600 musical works over the internet, in a case brought by Svenska Antipiratbyrån (APB), which represents the film and music industry. / read more

MySpace and Facebook have launched initiatives that will allow users of their social networking facilities to share their profile details and other data with other internet sites, if they choose to do so. / read more

TorrentSpy, a search engine for torrent files, is to appeal against a 5 May ruling issued by the Central District Court of California, which required it to pay $111 million in damages to movie studios for copyright infringement (17 U.S.C §§ 501) and banned it from further infringing copyrighted works. / read more

Features

The Linköpings court's decision in the Andreas Karlsson case suggests a change in tack by a country previously perceived as sympathetic to file-sharers. / read more

The Phorm saga continues
New rules on unfair commercial practices and misleading marketing
Parliamentary committee criticises Government over data protection
Email marketing issues facing UK's top retailers
Dates for Your Diary / read more

In the ten years in which he was Prime Minister, Tony Blair made no more than a handful of speeches in which he referred to child protection on the internet. In less than a year in office, Gordon Brown has made half a dozen. Whereas previously, only Home Office Ministers routinely spoke about internet safety for children, in the past few months, two or three different Cabinet Ministers have made a series of sometimes quite detailed references to it. / read more

A Home Office Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet has recently issued good practice guidance for the providers of social networks and other interactive services. Hannah Sutcliffe, a Solicitor with Kemp Little LLP, examines how the recommendations are tailored to protecting children and young people using these services. / read more

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, which transpose into law the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, come into force on 26 May. Peter Donaldson, a Senior Associate at Hammonds, explains the scope of the Regulations, the practices that they prohibit, the defences acceptable and penalties available for infringement. / read more

Case law has placed pressure on the media to exercise restraint when publishing information that could have an impact on a person's private life. However, the recent decision of Mr. Justice Eady in Mosley v News Group Newspapers has clarified that once that information has been available on the internet for some time, ordering a removal would have little to no impact. Ian De Freitas, a Partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, explains this ruling and its implications for online media. / read more

The launch by advertising technology company, Phorm, of a new tool which tracks users' search behaviour on the internet and allows companies to target specific advertising to those users has generated significant controversy and debate. Nick Graham and Helen Anderson of Denton Wilde Sapte LLP examine the technology, assess its legal position under UK data protection and privacy laws and consider its wider implications for targeted advertising models. / read more

.au Domain Administration Ltd. announced plans to review the .au domain name industry model, which it regulates, in March. Jo Lim, Chief Policy Officer at .au Domain Administration Ltd. explains the reasons for the review. / read more

A South African Supreme Court of Appeal judgment recognised image rights under South African law, which has implications for internet sites as any person, whether famous or not, will be able to protect against the unauthorised use of their image for commercial purposes. Steve Cornelius, a Professor in Law at the University of Johannesburg, examines the judgment. / read more

Broadcast rights: 'The FA Premier League v QC Leisure'
Patents: 'Ingenico v Pendawell'
Patents: 'Astron Clinica Limited' / 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