E-Commerce Law & Policy

Volume: 11 Issue: 9
(September 2009)

News

The German Ministry of Justice has opposed the proposed settlement reached between Google, the US Authors Guild (AG) and the US Association of American Publishers (AAP) - allowing Google to create a digital database of books ­ in a brief filed with a US district court on 31 August. / read more

The UK Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) has proposed a mechanism whereby Ofcom would be granted powers to oblige internet service providers to suspend a subscriber's internet access to tackle the problem of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. The proposal is part of a BIS consultation - published following the release of the Digital Britain Report - into proposed P2P file sharing legislation. / read more

The Italian Competition Authority launched an investigation on 26 August, into whether Google News Italia's conduct 'is such as to adversely affect proper competition in the online advertising market and to consolidate its position as an intermediary in the sale of advertising space'. The investigation follows a complaint from the Italian Newspaper Publishing Federation (FIEG) claiming that Google prevents publishers from freely choosing the manner in which they allow the use of news published on their websites. The FIEG alleges that news sites that do not want to appear on Google News are automatically excluded from the Google search engine - which distorts the market for online advertising. / read more

Features

The proposed settlement of the US case between the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild and Google can be viewed as a major step forward in the process of bringing to life tens of thousands of books or as a move by the US to dominate the digital book market. / read more

Government releases its Digital Britain implementation plan
Digital economy at the heart of Europe's recovery plan
Dates for your diary / read more

If passed into law, the Telecoms Reform Package - proposed by the European Commission in 2007 - would provide for the establishment of a new EU telecoms regulatory authority, introduce measures aimed at giving national regulators the power to impose functional separation on dominant players to spur competition, review radio spectrum management and consumer protection measures. Scott Fairbairn, an Associate at CMS Cameron McKenna, provides a summary of the key features of the proposals contained in the Package and examines its progress. / read more

The EU E-Commerce Directive 2000/31/EC - adopted almost 10 years ago - is often cited as the legal backdrop to the question of liability for online activity. Richard Nash, Senior Manager EU Public Affairs at eBay, examines how - despite criticism for being outdated - the Directive is as relevant to tackling the issue of liability as ever. / read more

A number of governments, backed by rights holders, have proposed legislation to tackle illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. These legislative proposals have triggered the formation of pro-file sharing groups. Philip Hunt, Campaigns Officer for the Pirate Party UK, shares his views regarding the future of regulatory limitations on file sharing. / read more

The German Federal Council recently passed the 'Act on amendments to statutory data protection provisions', that enforces changes to the Federal Data Protection Act, the Telemedia Act and the Telecommunications Act as of 1 September. Dr. Jörg Hladjk, an Associate at Hunton & Williams LLP, examines the main areas for compliance under the Act from an e-commerce perspective. / read more

Recent court rulings in the US and the UK have seen the identities of blog authors exposed for posting unsavoury comments about individuals and entities. Vanessa Barnett, an e-commerce and digital media Partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, examines the main legal issues that can arise with blogging, such as defamation, copyright infringement and advertising/unfair trading issues. / read more

The Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA) creates a global framework responsible for regulating commercial electronic messages in Canada. Alex Cameron and Sarah Turney, from Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, examine the potentially far-reaching effects of the ECPA on e-commerce. / read more

Safe Harbor: Zango, Inc. v Kaspersky Lab, Inc.
Trademarks: L'Oréal SA et al v Bellure NV et al
Privacy: The Author of a Blog v Times Newspapers 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