“Privacy by Design” is becoming the mantra of Data Protection enforcement world wide. Simply cutting and pasting a solution from another jurisdiction into an Irish or EU context invites breaches of legislation and failures of the required governance and controls. This is not just a technology issue.
Given that politicians are asking us to trust them, they should ensure that they take the necessary steps to earn that trust. Just like any other organisation embracing new technologies, they must ensure that the necessary due diligence and governance structures are in place to ensure that they are acting in compliance with long established legislation. If they are promoting a “tough on regulation” policy platform, then they must lead with a clear “tone from the top” of Compliance and good Governance.
Semiotics, Law, and Copyright
H. Brian Holland, Texas Wesleyan School of Law, is publishing Social Semiotics in the Fair Use Analysis in a forthcoming issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. Here is the abstract.
This article presents an argument for an expansion of fair use, based not on theories of authorship or rights of autonomy but rather on a theory of the audience linked to social practice. The article asks, in essence, whether audiences determine the meaning, purpose, function, or social benefit of an allegedly infringing work, often regardless of what the work’s creator did or intended. If so, does this matter for the purpose of a fair use analysis based on a claim of transformativeness?
Indemnification: A Misunderstood Concept
In this recent blog post I explained why I’m not a fan of imposing on a contract party an obligation that it doesn’t have control over. Rather than engage in that sort of indirect and counterintuitive risk allocation, I’d rather make my risk allocation explicit. One way to do that is by providing for indemnification.
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As I have observed on this blog in the past, The Hunting of the Snark is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll, which describes “with infinite humour the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature” (Williams and Madan (1974) via wikipedia). We have waited so long for the Hunt Report that it has taken on much of the mythical quality of the “inconceivable” Snark. In February 2009, the Minister for Education and Science established a high level Strategy Group, chaired by Dr Colin Hunt, to develop a National Strategy for Higher Education in Ireland. The Report does not seem to be on the relevant page of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) website, but the Irish Times has today published a draft of the Report on its website (pdf). There have already been many press pieces and blog comments on the Report, so I’m only going to highlight a few of the recommendations that I find particularly interesting.
The Report is a difficult mixture of platitudes (“Ireland’s higher education system has played a major role in the development of Irish society and the economy”) and management jargon (“Ireland’s higher education institutions need to continue to break new ground in research of the highest standards across the spectrum of disciplines and activity”), but that is probably inevitable.…
Contradictions in Defamation Cases
January 6, 2011Before its holiday break, the European Court of Human Rights released two judgments in defamation cases, Novaya Gazeta V Voronezhe v. Russia and Sofranschi v. Moldova. Both cases concern allegations of abuse and irregularities. While both judgments contain good elements, in my opinion they also reveal faulty reasoning on the part of the Court. Most interestingly, the judgments contradict each other on some crucial points. Thus one judgment provides alternatives to the shortcomings of the other.
New legal blogging review by Charon QC
January 2, 2011 by Adam Wagner
Legal blogger Charon QC has published the latest Blawg Review, a comprehensive survey of the legal blogging world.It is a magnum opus, and in order to express just how large and comprehensive it is, I have borrowed an image from the Family Lore blog which shows the review in its entirety.
For more about legal blogging, see here.
Happy New Year and Welcome to the Public Domain
Holidays, festivals and parties abound as the year turns from one to another. As we recover from all the celebrating, let us not forget one of copyright’s biggest days buried in the midst of all the punch, eggnog and streamers: Public Domain Day.
As is usual for this most festive of IP days, many posts around the blogosphere are listing works that have entered the public domain, works that would have entered the public domain under previous copyright laws and parties and events celebrating it all.
Picture: A page from this blogger’s favorite public domain work
Some Thoughts on Libel Tourismby Andrew R. Klein, Indiana University School of Law, via SSRN
This paper addresses the topic of “libel tourism,” a phrase used to describe cases where plaintiffs sue for defamation in a foreign jurisdiction and then seek to enforce judgments in the U.S., where the outcome might have been different because of protections for speech embodied in the United States Constitution. … [It] reviews recent reactions from legislators, courts, and commentators, and then offer some thoughts about whether these reactions appropriately balance concerns of comity and free speech. Ultimately, the essay concludes that U.S. attempts to address the issue of libel tourism have been quite broad, and suggests a more cautious approach that would better contribute to maintaining America’s role as a leader in the evolving world of tort law.
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