Billions of minutes a month are spent globally on social media. This raises not only serious legal issues, but also has a clear impact on everyday commercial activity. This book considers the significant legal developments that have arisen due to social media. It provides an expert explanation of the issues that practitioners and businesses need to consider, as well as the special measures that are required in order to minimise their exposure to risk. The content is highly practical, and not only explores the law related to social media, but also includes useful aids for the reader, such as flow charts, checklists and case studies. Various categories and channels of social media are covered in this book, alongside the legal classification of different social networks. Social media is also considered in the context of human rights law by evaluating the implications this has had upon the development of civil and criminal law when pursuing a civil remedy or criminal prosecution in relation to online speech. As part of these discussions the book deals specifically with the Defamation Act 2013, the Communications Act 2003, the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Contempt of Court Act 1988 among other key issues such as seeking Injunctions and the resulting privacy implications. Finally, the author also pays careful consideration to the commercial aspects raised by social media. The reader will find reference to key cases and regulatory guidance notes and statutes including, the Data Protection Act 1998 (including the draft Data Protection Regulation), user privacy, human rights, trading and advertising standards, special rules for FCA regulated bodies and social media insurance. This book is an invaluable guide for private practice and in-house practitioners, business professionals, academics and post-graduate students involved in the law surrounding social media.

This book offers an original analysis of private copying and determines its actual scope as an area of end-user freedom. The basis of this examination is Article 5(2)(b) of the Copyright Directive. Despite the fact that copying for private and non-commercial use is permitted by virtue of this article and the national laws that implemented it, there is no mandate that this privilege should not be technologically or contractually restricted. Because the legal nature of private copying is not settled, users may consider that they have a 'right' to private copying, whereas rightholders are in position to prohibit the exercise of this 'right'. With digital technology and the internet, this tension has become prominent: the conceptual contours of permissible private copying, namely the private and non-commercial character of the use, do not translate well, and tend to be less clear in the digital context. With the permissible limits of private copying being contested and without clarity as to the legal nature of the private coping limitation, the scope of user freedom is being challenged. Private use, however, has always remained free in copyright law. Not only is it synonymous with user autonomy via the exhaustion doctrine, but it also finds protection under privacy considerations which come into play at the stage of copyright enforcement. The author of this book argues that the rationale for a private copying limitation remains unaltered in the digital world and maintains there is nothing to prevent national judges from interpreting the legal nature of private copying as a 'sacred' privilege that can be enforced against possible restrictions. Private Copying will be of particular interest to academics, students and practitioners of intellectual property law.

In this book, Benjamin Farrand employs an interdisciplinary approach that combines legal analysis with political theory to explore the development of copyright law in the EU. Farrand utilises Foucault's concept of Networks of Power and Culpepper's Quiet Politics to assess the adoption and enforcement of copyright law in the EU, including the role of industry representative, cross-border licensing, and judicial approaches to territorial restrictions. Focusing in particular on legislative initiatives concerning copyright, digital music and the internet, Networks of Power in Digital Copyright Law and Policy: Political Salience, Expertise and the Legislative Process demonstrates the connection between copyright law and complex network relationships. This book presents an original socio-political theoretical framework for assessing developments in copyright law that will interest researchers and post-graduate students of law and politics, as well as those more particularly concerned with political theory, EU and copyright law.

During this era of construction of the information superhighway, this volume presents a prudent analysis of the pros and cons of continuing state regulation of telecommunications. While interested parties either attack or defend state regulation, careful scholarly analysis is required to strike the appropriate balance of regulatory federalism. Focusing on regulation in the 1990s, it uses a positive political economy perspective to analyze enduring state-federal conflicts and to weigh the justifications and explanations for continuing state telecommunications regulation, or for changing its structure. It also considers normative concerns and makes recommendations about how to improve telecommunications policy. Seriously concerned with assessing the problems surrounding cost burdens for different categories of consumers, market entry for different firms, economic growth and the information infrastructure, global competitiveness, and control over information, this volume attempts to provide answers to the following specific questions: * How are states regulating telecommunications in the brave new world of global markets, fiber optics, and digital technology? * Do states vary significantly in their regulatory models? * How are the politics of state and federal regulation different? * Would a different federal-state relationship better serve national telecommunications goals in the future? To tackle these critical questions, the scholarly perspectives of economists, lawyers, political scientists, and telecommunications consultants and practitioners are employed.

"Cohen v. Cowles Media Company" changed the course of First Amendment media law. After a quarter century of decisions interpreting the First Amendment to give media organizations preferential treatment, the Supreme Court ruled in 1991 that the Constitution did not give the press immunity from the laws ordinary citizens must obey. The American Bar Association quarterly "Communications Lawyer" (Spring 1998) calls "Cohen" a media law hall of fame case. The author, who was the plaintiff's sole attorney in all phases of the case, provides detailed analysis of the complexities of constitutional litigation and the strategic and tactical considerations involved in formulating constitutional arguments in the Supreme Court and other courts.

This is a classic David v. Goliath story of a lone lawyer who worked out of his basement taking on media and legal giants and winning. Scores of attorneys from major law firms around the country represented the Minneapolis and St. Paul newspaper defendants and their allies in court in a case where experts were confident that the press could never lose. The "Cohen" decision has revolutionized the law regarding accountability for wrongdoing by media organizations, and many federal and state courts have relied upon the "Cohen" case in holding media organizations liable for their actions. This lively account will interest not only legal and media scholars, but all readers interested in correcting injustice.

Convergence, participatory culture, multimedia technologies, and social media platforms are creating new communicative opportunities that fundamentally influence citizenship and journalism. Social media present a staggering breadth of legal and ethical matters to consider. The limits and laws of free expression in this new media landscape are beginning to emerge both domestically and internationally, causing us to ask the following questions: How do we conceive of privacy? Should the law protect citizen journalists? How do social media affect ethical obligations of journalists and public relations professionals? These are just a few of the issues raised by the new social media landscape. Myriad standards of professional ethics command compliance in order for various media industries to function. Scholarly researchers of social media have not yet focused on the rights of expression and ethical obligations of the new media environment. This volume will address the scope and nature of this developing environment of expression with chapter topics ranging from privacy, cyber-bullying, and harassment to defamation, intellectual property rights, and online safety.

In this book Konstantinos Komaitis identifies a tripartite problem - intellectual, institutional and ethical - inherent in the domain name regulation culture. Using the theory of property, Komaitis discusses domain names as sui generis 'e-property' rights and analyses the experience of the past ten years, through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). The institutional deficit he identifies, generates a further discussion on the ethical dimensions in the regulation of domain names and prompts Komaitis to suggest the creation of an environment based on justice. The relationship between trademarks and domain names has always been contentious and the existing institutions of the UDRP and ACPA have not assisted in alleviating the tension between the two identifiers. Over the past ten years, the trademark community has been systematic in encouraging and promoting a culture that indiscriminately considers domain names as secondclass citizens, suggesting that trademark rights should have priority over the registration in the domain name space. Komaitis disputes this assertion and brings to light the injustices and the trademark-oriented nature of the UDRP and ACPA. He queries what the appropriate legal source to protect registrants when not seeking to promote trademark interests is. He also delineates a legal hypothesis on their nature as well as the steps of their institutionalisation process that we need to reverse, seeking to create a just framework for the regulation of domain names. Finally he explores how the current policies contribute to the philosophy of domain names as second-class citizens. With these questions in mind, Komaitis suggests some recommendations concerning the reconfiguration of the regulation of domain names.

Breaking Away sounds a warning call alerting readers that their privacy and autonomy concerns are indeed warranted, and the remedies deserve far greater attention than they have received from our leading policymakers and experts to date. Through the various prisms of economic theory, market data, policy, and law, the book offers a clear and accessible insight into how a few powerful firms - Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), and Amazon - have used the same anticompetitive playbook and manipulated the current legal regime for their gain at our collective expense. While much has been written about these four companies' power, far less has been said about addressing their risks. In looking at the proposals to date, however, policymakers and scholars have not fully addressed three fundamental issues: First, will more competition necessarily promote our privacy and well-being? Second, who owns the personal data, and is that even the right question? Third, what are the policy implications if personal data is non-rivalrous? Breaking Away not only articulates the limitations of the current enforcement and regulatory approach but offers concrete proposals to promote competition, without having to sacrifice our privacy. This book explores how these platforms accumulated their power, why the risks they pose are far greater than previously believed, and why the tools need to be far more robust than what is being proposed. Policymakers, scholars, and business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs seeking to compete and innovate in the digital platform economy will find the book an invaluable source of information.

A comprehensive, structured, and up-to-date introduction to the law governing the dissemination of information in a computer-mediated world in China, Internet Law in China stresses the practical applications of the law that are encountered by all individuals and organizations in Chinese cyberspace, but always in the light of theoretical underpinnings. Among the overarching topics treated in the Chinese context are the following: intellectual property protection in cyberspace; privacy of communication and data privacy; electronic contract forming and electronic signature; personal, domestic and international jurisdiction; and free expression in cyberspace. This book is particularly valuable to legal, business, and communication professionals, academics, and students concerned with the regulation of the Internet and related activities in China. It is the first book to focus solely on Chinese Internet law.

The majority of countries in the world have already agreed to accept minimum standards of intellectual property protection and enforcement - the key issue now is how much control innovators should have over their creative works or inventions. The contributors to this book analyse and develop this issue, which is of increased importance in the new knowledge-based economy. One view is that broad and powerful rights give the creators the ability to trade information and push the frontiers of knowledge forward faster; the opposing view is that increased power over information will freeze development and chill intellectual interchange.

This volume presents analyses of data protection systems and of 26 jurisdictions with data protection legislation in Africa, as well as additional selected countries without comprehensive data protection laws. In addition, it covers all sub-regional and regional data privacy policies in Africa. Apart from analysing data protection law, the book focuses on the socio-economic contexts, political settings and legal culture in which such laws developed and operate. It bases its analyses on the African legal culture and comparative international data privacy law. In Africa protection of personal data, the central preoccupation of data privacy laws, is on the policy agenda. The recently adopted African Union Cyber Security and Data Protection Convention 2014, which is the first and currently the only single treaty across the globe to address data protection outside Europe, serves as an illustration of such interest. In addition, there are data protection frameworks at sub-regional levels for West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. Similarly, laws on protection of personal data are increasingly being adopted at national plane. Yet despite these data privacy law reforms there is very little literature about data privacy law in Africa and its recent developments. This book fills that gap.

This book presents a first comprehensive effort to explore the mechanics and fundamentals of global ICT standardization. It offers a comprehensive study of legal rules governing ICT standardization; systematically analyses governance and institutional features of some most prominent Standards Development Organizations; and presents qualitative empirical evidence on implementation of these rules in practice. By evaluating legal and procedural rules in light of current practices and tendencies in the industry, the book explores various options available for disciplining ICT standardization from the viewpoint of the applicable legislation, judiciary, and internal governance rules of Standards Development Organizations and offers practical solutions on how to increase the legitimacy of ICT standards. Adding to the previous theoretical approach to the field of standardization from historical, legal and political science perspective, this book applies theoretical considerations to unexplored scenarios, offering a holistic picture of ICT standardization and providing a novel contribution to the field.

The book examines the extent to which Chinese cyber and network security laws and policies act as a constraint on the emergence of Chinese entrepreneurialism and innovation. Specifically, how the contradictions and tensions between data localisation laws (as part of Network Sovereignty policies) affect innovation in artificial intelligence (AI). The book surveys the globalised R&D networks, and how the increasing use of open-source platforms by leading Chinese AI firms during 2017-2020, exacerbated the apparent contradiction between Network Sovereignty and Chinese innovation. The drafting of the Cyber Security Law did not anticipate the changing nature of globalised AI innovation. It is argued that the deliberate deployment of what the book refers to as 'fuzzy logic' in drafting the Cyber Security Law allowed regulators to subsequently interpret key terms regarding data in that Law in a fluid and flexible fashion to benefit Chinese innovation.

A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.tandfebooks.com as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project.

E-commerce offers immense challenges to traditional dispute resolution methods, as it entails parties often located in different parts of the world making contracts with each other at the click of a mouse. The use of traditional litigation for disputes arising in this forum is often inconvenient, impractical, time-consuming and expensive due to the low value of the transactions and the physical distance between the parties. Thus modern legal systems face a crucial choice: either to adopt traditional dispute resolution methods that have served the legal systems well for hundreds of years or to find new methods which are better suited to a world not anchored in territorial borders.

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), originally an off-shoot of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), takes advantage of the speed and convenience of the Internet, becoming the best, and often the only option for enhancing consumer redress and strengthening their trust in e-commerce. This book provides an in-depth account of the potential of ODR for European consumers, offering a comprehensive and up to date analysis of the development of ODR. It considers the current expansion of ODR and evaluates the challenges posed in its growth. The book proposes the creation of legal standards to close the gap between the potential of ODR services and their actual use, arguing that ODR, if it is to realise its full potential in the resolution of e-commerce disputes and in the enforcement of consumer rights, must be grounded firmly on a European regulatory model.

In this book Konstantinos Komaitis identifies a tripartite problem - intellectual, institutional and ethical - inherent in the domain name regulation culture. Using the theory of property, Komaitis discusses domain names as sui generis 'e-property' rights and analyses the experience of the past ten years, through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). The institutional deficit he identifies, generates a further discussion on the ethical dimensions in the regulation of domain names and prompts Komaitis to suggest the creation of an environment based on justice.

The relationship between trademarks and domain names has always been contentious and the existing institutions of the UDRP and ACPA have not assisted in alleviating the tension between the two identifiers. Over the past ten years, the trademark community has been systematic in encouraging and promoting a culture that indiscriminately considers domain names as secondclass citizens, suggesting that trademark rights should have priority over the registration in the domain name space.

Komaitis disputes this assertion and brings to light the injustices and the trademark-oriented nature of the UDRP and ACPA. He queries what the appropriate legal source to protect registrants when not seeking to promote trademark interests is. He also delineates a legal hypothesis on their nature as well as the steps of their institutionalisation process that we need to reverse, seeking to create a just framework for the regulation of domain names. Finally he explores how the current policies contribute to the philosophy of domain names as second-class citizens.

With these questions in mind, Komaitis suggests some recommendations concerning the reconfiguration of the regulation of domain names.

The fusion between virtuality and reality has created a new quality of experience establishing metaverses and virtual worlds. Second Life, Twinity, Entropia Universe or Fregger have experienced rapid growth in recent years and show no signs of slowing down. Not only have countless companies discovered these "virtureal worlds" as marketplaces, but so have fraudsters and other criminals. In this book, European experts from different academic disciplines show how to meet the new challenges arising from virtual worlds. They discuss the reasons for and the impacts of these new forms of criminality as well as the necessity and means of combating them. Moreover, other fundamental issues are examined, such as the addictive potential of virtual-world use, media violence, and conflict resolution problems arising in the context of virtual worlds.

Financial technology is rapidly changing and shaping financial services and markets. These changes are considered making the future of finance a digital one.This Handbook analyses developments in the financial services, products and markets that are being reshaped by technologically driven changes with a view to their policy, regulatory, supervisory and other legal implications. The Handbook aims to illustrate the crucial role the law has to play in tackling the revolutionary developments in the financial sector by offering a framework of legally enforceable principles and values in which such innovations might take place without threatening the acquis of financial markets law and more generally the rule of law and basic human rights. With contributions from international leading experts, topics will include: Policy, High-level Principles, Trends and Perspectives Fintech and Lending Fintech and Payment Services Fintech, Investment and Insurance Services Fintech, Financial Inclusion and Sustainable Finance Cryptocurrencies and Cryptoassets Markets and Trading Regtech and Suptech This Handbook will be of great relevance for practitioners and students alike, and a first reference point for academics researching in the fields of banking and financial markets law.

In the past decade, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a disruptive force around the world, offering enormous potential for innovation but also creating hazards and risks for individuals and the societies in which they live. This volume addresses the most pressing philosophical, ethical, legal, and societal challenges posed by AI. Contributors from different disciplines and sectors explore the foundational and normative aspects of responsible AI and provide a basis for a transdisciplinary approach to responsible AI. This work, which is designed to foster future discussions to develop proportional approaches to AI governance, will enable scholars, scientists, and other actors to identify normative frameworks for AI to allow societies, states, and the international community to unlock the potential for responsible innovation in this critical field. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This supplemental text on PR law is intended to be used with other mass communication textbooks. It is intended for the mass communication law course, which is a mainstay in all accredited programs in mass communication, journalism, broadcasting, telecommunications, public relations, mass media, and related curricula.

Cellular technology has always been a surveillance technology, but "cellular convergence" - the growing trend for all forms of communication to consolidate onto the cellular handset - has dramatically increased the impact of that surveillance. In Cellular Convergence and the Death of Privacy, Stephen Wicker explores this unprecedented threat to privacy from three distinct but overlapping perspectives: the technical, the legal, and the social. Professor Wicker first describes cellular technology and cellular surveillance using language accessible to non-specialists. He then examines current legislation and Supreme Court jurisprudence that form the framework for discussions about rights in the context of cellular surveillance. Lastly, he addresses the social impact of surveillance on individual users. The story he tells is one of a technology that is changing the face of politics and economics, but in ways that remain highly uncertain.

Due to rapid developments in the communication sector, the right to privacy faces new challenges. The increasing digitization and internationalization of communication processes have raised a number of issues, and lead to conflicts wherever national legal systems and moral concepts collide. Particularly in the areas of data protection and liability of online service providers, universal approaches are required. This title presents positions of specialists in Europe, Australia, the US and Canada which contribute to the international dialogue and thereby offer a starting point for a sustainable policy for the protection of privacy rights

Examining the development and design of regulatory structures in the online environment, The Regulation of Cyberspace considers current practices and suggests a regulatory model that acknowledges its complexity and how it can be used by regulators to provide a more comprehensive regulatory structure for cyberspace. Drawing on the work of cyber-regulatory theorists, such as Yochai Benkler, Andrew Shapiro and Lawrence Lessig, Murray explores and analyzes how all forms of control, including design and market controls, as well as traditional command and control regulation, are applied within the complex and flexible environment of cyberspace. It includes chapters on: the role of the cyberlawyer environmental design and control online communities cyber laws and cyber law-making. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in law and information technology.

Examining the development and design of regulatory structures in the online environment, The Regulation of Cyberspace considers current practices and suggests a regulatory model that acknowledges its complexity and how it can be used by regulators to provide a more comprehensive regulatory structure for cyberspace.

Drawing on the work of cyber-regulatory theorists, such as Yochai Benkler, Andrew Shapiro and Lawrence Lessig, Murray explores and analyzes how all forms of control, including design and market controls, as well as traditional command and control regulation, are applied within the complex and flexible environment of cyberspace. It includes chapters on:

• the role of the cyberlawyer
• environmental design and control
• online communities
• cyber laws and cyber law-making.

This book is an essential read for anyone interested in law and information technology.

Blockchain Technology and the Law: Opportunities and Risks is one of the first texts to offer a critical analysis of Blockchain and the legal and economic challenges faced by this new technology. This book will offer those who are unfamiliar with Blockchain an introduction as to how the technology works and will demonstrate how a legal framework that governs it can be used to ensure that it can be successfully deployed. Discussions included in this book: - an introduction to smart contracts, and their potential, from a commercial and consumer law perspective, to change the nature of transactions between parties; - the impact that Blockchain has already had on financial services, and the possible consumer risks and macro-economic issues that may arise in the future; - the challenges that are facing global securities regulators with the development of Initial Coin Offerings and the ongoing risks that they pose to the investing public; - the risk of significant privacy breaches due to the online public nature of Blockchain; and - the future of Blockchain technology. Of interest to academics, policy-makers, technology developers and legal practitioners, this book will provide a thorough examination of Blockchain technology in relation to the law from a comparative perspective with a focus on the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

This book brings together leading counterterrorism experts, from academia and practice, to form an interdisciplinary assessment of the terrorist threat facing the United Kingdom and the European Union, focusing on how terrorists and terrorist organisations communicate in the digital age. Perspectives drawn from criminological, legalistic, and political sciences, allow the book to highlight the problems faced by the state and law enforcement agencies in monitoring, accessing, and gathering intelligence from the terrorist use of electronic communications, and how such powers are used proportionately and balanced with human rights law. The book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of terrorism and security, policing and human rights. With contributions from the fields of both academia and practice, it will also be of interest to professionals and practitioners working in the areas of criminal law, human rights and terrorism.