E-Commerce Law & Policy

Volume: 3 Issue: 6
(June 2001)

News

The file swapping site, Napster, has lost a further round in its battle over the injunction won by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) which has resulted in site traffic dropping by a reputed 90 per cent since its high point last year. / read more

The US Supreme Court’s decision to back a claim by freelance authors against the New York Times, Newsday, Time and Lexis-Nexis (NewYork Times Co. Inc et al V Tasini et al No 00-201 Argued March 28 2001 - decided June 25 2001) over the reuse of published material on online databases will have repercussions throughout the publishing industry in the US and Europe. / read more

The US has led opposition to the latest draft of The Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgements in Civil and Commercial Matters which was discussed at the Hague Conference on Private International Law at a two week session in June. / read more

Features

Not long ago the net stood for free information and free communication. The net was hailed as a democratising tool that brought people around the world closer together, that improved international understanding. In cyberspace everyone was equal. / read more

The launch of ‘.info’, the second of the new top level domains, is to take place on 25 July 2001. There is provision for trade mark owners to stake their claim to a ‘.info’ domain name during a ‘sunrise period’. For the best chance of success, they should apply in the initial seven day period, beginning 25 July 2001. / read more

The UK Cabinet Office’s Performance and Innovation Unit is shortly to launch a report which is likely to recommend facilitating the widespread sharing of citizens personal information between government departments. / read more

The UK has vetoed the latest EU proposals to impose value added tax on digitised products sold over the internet. At the last moment the UK government opposed the wishes of its 14 EU partners to follow the proposal of the Swedish Presidency making non-EU suppliers of digitised products collect VAT on B2C transactions.Without the support of the UK government, discussions on the Swedish proposal, which were due to take place at the meeting of the EU economic and finance ministers on June 5, have come to a halt. It remains to be seen whether the EU council will be able to overcome this deadlock. / read more

An email policy is now widely recognised as being essential in business. Yet many email policies fail to come to grips with changes in the law that have made the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers alike far more complex. This article discusses the latest best practice in crafting a policy / read more

The domain name wars, at least insofar as they have directly involved domain name registration companies in trademark disputes, may finally be coming to a cease fire. Although multiple suits have been filed against them over the last five years, domain name registration companies can operate with increasing confidence that their registry operations will not expose them to liability for direct or indirect trademark infringement. / read more

The Munich Appeal Court judgement in the AOL case will re-ignite the discussion on liability of Internet-providers and shed further light on German Courts attitude to the emerging legal frame work for Internet-related issues / read more

The German Supreme Court has now provided clarification on the issue of generic domain names. In the August 2000 issue of E-Commerce Law & Policy we reported about the decision of the Court of Appeals in Hamburg, which held that generic domain names were a violation of German Unfair Competition Rules, as such generic name would channel customers to one provider and thereby exclude others. A number of courts in Germany followed this decision. / read more

Recently, the media has been full of comment on businesses with internet-based business models (or, more popularly, “dot-coms”) going out of business as they fail to obtain additional rounds of funding. What has received less media attention is what happens before that point is reached, as dot-coms attempt to reduce their expenditure so as to conserve their existing funds for as long as they can. / read more

"If you become a lawyer, you must remember that the science of law is not fixed like geometry, but is a growth which keeps pace with the progress of society."1It has always been recognised that the law has to adapt to survive, but the growth of the internet is perhaps the most conspicuous example of the law failing to adapt with sufficient speed. / read more

A recent survey discovered that China’s favourite leisure activity for young people was surfing the internet. Although the internet is seen primarily as an information resource there is a growing interest in e-commerce applications in China. Foreign investors wishing to establish an e-commerce operation in China, however, need to consider several significant commercial, practical and legal issues before investing. / read more

If it was not already apparent to the many trademark owners who have submitted complaints under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Procedure (UDRP), there is an important distinction to be made between that specially-developed administrative procedure and a common arbitration proceeding. On May 10, 2001, in the first published decision on this point, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in Parisi v. Netlearning, Inc. that "mandatory administrative proceedings" under the UDRP do not constitute an "arbitration" subject to the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), 9 U.S.C. §1 et seq. / 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