A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
Adsense HTML
Assaults on Privacy in the USA
A good article in Harvard Magazine titled "How surveillance changes people's behaviour: assaults on privacy in America." See article here.
EU ePrivacy
On 10 January 2017, the European Commission published a
Proposal for a Regulation could have significant implications for Internet-based services and technologies.
The Proposal seeks to revise the current EU ePrivacy Directive. It creates strict new rules
regarding confidentiality of electronic communications, including
content and metadata. In addition, the Proposal amends the current rules
on the use of cookies and similar technologies, and direct marketing.
The rules apply to EU and non-EU companies providing
services in the EU, and are backed up by significant enforcement
powers—fines of up to four percent of a company's global turnover.
The Proposal is the next major step in the EU's review of its data protection legal framework and follows the adoption of the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in April 2016.
United States Copyright Office Releases Report on Software-Enabled Consumer Products
Yesterday, the
U.S. Copyright Office released a report titled "Software-Enabled
Consumer Products."
The report follows a year-long process, during which the Office studied how copyright law interacts with software-enabled consumer products, from cars, to refrigerators, to mobile phones, to thermostats and the like.
The report explores the various legal doctrines that apply to this subset of software, which is increasingly present in everyday life, including important copyright doctrines such as fair use, merger, scènes à faire, first sale, and the section 117 exemptions. The report focuses on specific issues raised in the public comments and hearings, including how copyright law affects licensing, resale, repair and tinkering, security research and interoperability.
The Copyright Office's report found that current legal doctrines support a wide range of legitimate uses of the embedded software in consumer products while also recognizing the importance of copyright protection to the creation and distribution of innovative products. The report does not recommend legislative changes at this time.
The full report and executive summary are available on the Copyright Office's website at http://copyright.gov/policy/software/.
The report follows a year-long process, during which the Office studied how copyright law interacts with software-enabled consumer products, from cars, to refrigerators, to mobile phones, to thermostats and the like.
The report explores the various legal doctrines that apply to this subset of software, which is increasingly present in everyday life, including important copyright doctrines such as fair use, merger, scènes à faire, first sale, and the section 117 exemptions. The report focuses on specific issues raised in the public comments and hearings, including how copyright law affects licensing, resale, repair and tinkering, security research and interoperability.
The Copyright Office's report found that current legal doctrines support a wide range of legitimate uses of the embedded software in consumer products while also recognizing the importance of copyright protection to the creation and distribution of innovative products. The report does not recommend legislative changes at this time.
The full report and executive summary are available on the Copyright Office's website at http://copyright.gov/policy/software/.
Apple Store Privacy Issues
Do you trust Apple Store employees when they take away your phone to fix it?
Staff in a Brisbane Apple Store reportedly lifted photos from some Apple customers' iPhones and took more than 100 close-up and explicit photos of female customers and staff without their knowledge.
This raises both privacy and copyright issues. It is also creepy.
See Brisbane Times
Staff in a Brisbane Apple Store reportedly lifted photos from some Apple customers' iPhones and took more than 100 close-up and explicit photos of female customers and staff without their knowledge.
This raises both privacy and copyright issues. It is also creepy.
See Brisbane Times
Swipes per minute
In one minute, there are 4,166,667 Facebook likes, 347,222 tweets, 590,279 Tinder swipes and 284,722 Snapchat snaps. See BRG
Revenge Porn
A story in the NY Times about a revenge porn civil case, and whether the decision by prosecutors to drop a corresponding criminal case will have any impact on the civil case.
"In recent years, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have earned a reputation for being particularly aggressive in pursuing cases against both former boyfriends and hackers selling unauthorized sexually explicit videos to websites. One notable case was the successful prosecution of Hunter Moore, who ran a now-defunct website that specialized in posting revenge porn videos that were stolen from people’s computers and posted without their permission.
The decision to drop the charges against Mr. Elam may illustrate the difficulties in pursuing such cases because they require a jury not to hold the victim partly responsible for creating the sexually explicit images in the first place and either sharing them with a former partner or storing them on a cellphone."
See NY Times
"In recent years, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have earned a reputation for being particularly aggressive in pursuing cases against both former boyfriends and hackers selling unauthorized sexually explicit videos to websites. One notable case was the successful prosecution of Hunter Moore, who ran a now-defunct website that specialized in posting revenge porn videos that were stolen from people’s computers and posted without their permission.
The decision to drop the charges against Mr. Elam may illustrate the difficulties in pursuing such cases because they require a jury not to hold the victim partly responsible for creating the sexually explicit images in the first place and either sharing them with a former partner or storing them on a cellphone."
See NY Times
Cravath Hacked
A large NY law firm was hacked.
Articles at: www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/business/dealbook/cravath-law-firm-discloses-a-data-attack.html, and www.wsj.com/articles/hackers-breach-cravath-swaine-other-big-law-firms-1459293504.
Articles at: www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/business/dealbook/cravath-law-firm-discloses-a-data-attack.html, and www.wsj.com/articles/hackers-breach-cravath-swaine-other-big-law-firms-1459293504.
Consequential Loss After Hacking Decision from the USA
An interesting decision from the United States (11th Circuit appeals court) in Silvertop Systems -- decision here.
There is an interesting discussion of consequential loss, that starts at the heading "LMT's Counterclaim for Breach of Contract"
Facts were these:
·
Supplier
(Silverpop) provided an email marketing service. Customers loaded up
email addresses and Supplier would send out mass emails in a form
specified by the customer
to addresses on the list.
·
Hackers got into the Supplier’s system and got access to several customer’s marketing lists, including LMT’s list.
·
The
contract between Silverpop and LMT had a confidentiality clause
(obligation to protect the list against unauthorised disclosure to third
parties) and an exclusion
of consequential loss.
·
Amongst
the claims and counterclaims, was a claim from LMT that Silverpop had
breached the confidentiality obligation and that the damage suffered by
LMT was the sale
value of the marketing list, which they said was now worthless.
Discount Accommodation and Affiliate Payments
Online travel agents make commissions of approximately 15% to 25% of the price of the accommodation booked. Some share that commission with travellers through loyalty programs. Others give discounts upfront, or share some of the commission with "affiliates" who refer other customers. One such service is JetSetter, who has discount quality accommodation, and shares 5% with the guest and 5% with the referring affiliate. See Jetsetter. (I use this service by the way, and it is good. I have stayed in luxury accommodation at great prices.)
Another good referral program is OFX (OzForex) which is an international wire money transfer business. It is in competition with Western Union, and is much better value. See OFX website.
Another good referral program is OFX (OzForex) which is an international wire money transfer business. It is in competition with Western Union, and is much better value. See OFX website.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
How should damages be assessed for privacy and cybersecurity breaches
Listen to this podcast where I discuss how damages should be assessed in privacy and cybersecurity lawsuits. The Lawyers Weekly Show host J...
-
The United Nations intellectual property agency (WIPO) is the latest front in the US-China trade war. http://www.theage.com.au/world/sad-am...
-
The issue of content regulation in China was mentioned in this blog last year . In the last few weeks, this issue has once again pushed into...
-
Finally, what is called direct registration of domain names is coming to Australia. See https://www.auda.org.au/statement/australias-interne...