Category Archives: Internet intermediaries

content regulation / hate speech / illegal content / immunities / Intellectual Property / Internet intermediaries / notice-and-take down / terrorism

The EU Commission and its official Communication on Online Platforms: is the e-commerce Directive being attacked by the back door?

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As you might remember, a draft version of the European Commission’s Communication on Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market was leaked at the end of April. From digesting it at that time, it seemed to be clear that the Commission had taken the view that content regulation should be sectorial and the liability exemptions … Continue reading →

content regulation / Copyright / Data protection / immunities / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / notice-and-take down

The EU Commission and its draft Communication on online platforms: sectorial voluntary action and soft law are the winners of the regulatory challenge!

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The topic of intermediary liability is a hot topic these days, with different types of institutions already having had looked, or still looking, at how to interpret/amend/improve the EU intermediary liability legal and regulatory regime. The European Commission [EC] fuelled this debate with its Communication of 6 May 2015 on ‘A Digital Single Market Strategy … Continue reading →

Copyright / Data protection / Google / Internet intermediaries / Linking / Privacy

I link, he delists and they get entangled in! Re-mixing copyright, trade marks and data protection while waiting for the CJEU’s decision in GS Media…

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Some of you certainly remember the Google v Vuitton case decided by the CJEU some years ago now, in 2010, which was a case about trade mark infringement. (Sometimes it is useful to go back to the roots!) To make the story short, the case involved the use of keywords corresponding to trade marks in … Continue reading →

defamation / Internet intermediaries / liability / notice-and-take down / Privacy

MTE v Hungary: is the ECtHR rewriting Delfi v Estonia?

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A few months after the now infamous decision Delfi v Estonia of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) [for background, see my earlier post here], the Fourth Section of the Court issued on 2 February 2016 a judgement (MTE v Hungary) dealing with similar issues. Starting with the end of … Continue reading →

Data protection / Internet intermediaries / Privacy / Surveillance

Weber, DRI and Schrems: so what are “measures of mass surveillance”? And what should we do with them? A tale of 2 Courts

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While the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in its recent judgment Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner (discussed here), does not mention the words “measures of mass surveillance” it states that it is concerned about measures “authoris[ing], on a generalised basis, storage of all the personal data of all the persons”. By way … Continue reading →

illegal content / Internet intermediaries

Internet intermediaries: How are you? What do you do? What the European Commission has to say

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While waiting to discuss with representatives of the European Commission at the first iCLIC Conference this week the implications of its Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe – as well as waiting for the issuing of the Commission’s forthcoming ‘public consultation on the regulatory environment for platforms, online intermediaries, data and cloud computing and the … Continue reading →

Access to data / Internet intermediaries / Surveillance / terrorism

What if the French constitutional judges had read the Davis Judgement? Would we be living in a better world?

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The French Constitutional Court (Conseil Constitutionnel) issued its decision n°2015-713 DC on the recently adopted Law on intelligence on 23 July 2015. Reading its decision after having read the Davis judgment of the English High Court, one wonders whether legal syllogism has suddenly been replaced by useless tautology. The newly adopted law on intelligence is … Continue reading →

defamation / Internet intermediaries / liability

On Delfi v Estonia… Is it time to adopt a good-Samaritan style exemption?

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The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recently upheld the decision of the First section in the case Delfi v Estonia, which in 2013 found that holding a news portal liable for the third-party comments posted on its Internet news portal did not amount to a violation of Article 10 of … Continue reading →

Data protection / Internet intermediaries / metadata

Access request for network data granted! A few thoughts on the decision of the Australian Privacy Commissioner in Ben Grubb and Telstra (1 May 2015)

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Ben Grubb and Telstra Corporation Limited [2015] AICmr 35 is a fascinating decision – issued on 1 May 2015 by Timothy Pilgrim, the Australian Privacy Commissioner – especially in the light of our recent posts, such as this one concerning Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and their roles as mere conduits and/or data controllers, or that … Continue reading →

content regulation / immunities / injunction / Internet intermediaries

Why CG v Facebook Ireland et al might be less odd than anticipated… On Internet intermediaries and monitoring obligations

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CG v Facebook Ireland and Joseph McCloskey delivered on 20/02/2015 by the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland has not always been warmly welcome… in particular by those concerned about the roles and responsibilities of Internet intermediaries in relation to distribution and access to information. Oh Well… Strangely, the CG v Facebook litigation seems … Continue reading →