3 12 December 2001

News:

The Court of Appeal in Loutchansky v The Times (5 December) ruled that online archives of articles that can be accessed at any time are not subject to a time limit for libel claims. The Court accepted that each act of accessing amounts to an act of republishing the articles.

Online business has attacked the EU Telecoms Council of Ministers, December 6, decision to impose a Europe wide opt-in requirement for unsolicited e-mails. Intense lobbying is taking place to persuade the European Parliament to reinstate their original amendment to the Directive, concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector. "Opt-in will not stop spamming by rogue companies," said Will Roebuck, Head of legal at UK based e.centre, "but it will make marketing by legitimate businesses that much harder".

Mobile ringing tone rights hit the headlines in the UK this month when EMI announced that they were withdrawing some of their catalogue from use in ring tones. Extravagant claims of censorship were rejected by the company.

Features:

Broadband is a key element in developing the potential of the internet. High speed 24/7 connectivity can transform users experience of online services. From online banking to downloading music, from online shopping to communicating with suppliers and customers broadband can provide an ease and speed of use which is critical to the success of such e-commerce businesses.

eResolution, one of the four original ICANN accredited dispute resolution providers for .com,.net .org and .biz, has attacked the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for creating a "forum-shopping" phenomenon which the company claims has forced eResolution to withdraw from the provision of dispute resolution services.

The political agreement reached on the Directive to simplify and modernise VAT invoice rules at the recent Council of Finance Ministers has been welcomed by both business and the Commission. The measure will be of significant practical benefit to firms within the Internal Market because it will ensure that they have only to deal with a single, simplified set of rules on invoicing valid throughout the EU.

Account aggregation, a new internet service that allows customers to bring together at one site all their financial information, has proved popular in the US despite early opposition from the banks.

UK institutions are now turning their attention to offering such services. This article examines the legal and regulatory issues that need to be addressed if such services are to be made available.

On 3 December 2001 the Office of the e-Envoy published the next steps to be taken by the Government in the roll out and adoption of broadband services across the UK which are designed to enable the Government to meet the objective that the Government set in its February 2001 report "UK online: the broadband future", namely that the UK should have the most extensive and competitive broadband market in the G7 by 2005. This article will look at the state of broadband access in the UK, the situation in two other EU G7 countries: Germany and France and what the future may hold for broadband access, in particular how regulation and Government policy has been and may continue to be used to stimulate supply of and demand for broadband services.

The deadline for the implementation of the European Designs Directive (Directive 98/71EC) has passed and the Directive now has direct effect in the UK. The Registered Design Regulations 2001 (

Many existing and new businesses have some type of internet presence. The proliferation of e-commerce is encouraging a new generation of creativity, much of it readily comprehensible to an increasing number notwithstanding the complicated nature of the underlying technology. In such circumstances, keeping track of what are establishing themselves as the main issues to be confronted by any business in establishing and developing its e-operations may not always be easy.

The usual problems concerning protection of a program are firstly that potential users will want to copy the software without payment, and secondly, competitors will wish to examine the software closely so that they can make competing products. Outside the scope of this article is patent protection, the law of contract, design law (semi-conductor products), breach of confidence (especially with respect to Source code) and trade mark law. Patent law and copyright law offer the main source of protection for software. Copyright will protect all but the most trivial computer programs. Patent law can protect software inventions, and design law may provide indirect protection of programs stored on integrated circuits. It is copyright law which is the focus of this article.