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
Tag Archives: Internet intermediaries
UK Codes of Practice Enacted to Develop Regulation of State Surveillance Powers
Law and policy regarding the capture of communications data continues to dominate the headlines for 2016 The European Data Protection Day, and the equivalent US/Canadian Data Privacy Day, coincided last week on 28 January. Their purpose – this year in the 10th edition of their kind, corresponding to the anniversary of the opening for signature … Continue reading
Access to data / content data / Data protection / Data retention / deep packet inspection / ISPs / Law enforcement / metadata / Personal data / Privacy / Surveillance
The Draft IP Bill and data retention obligations: on the irony of the invalidation of the Data Retention Directive
The Draft Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill was published on the 4th of November. It aims to “govern the use and oversight of investigatory powers by law enforcement and the security and intelligence agencies” in the UK. It is an attempt both to simplify the legal framework and legalise practices, which means it is, in part, … Continue reading
Weber, DRI and Schrems: so what are “measures of mass surveillance”? And what should we do with them? A tale of 2 Courts
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
Internet intermediaries: How are you? What do you do? What the European Commission has to say
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
What if the French constitutional judges had read the Davis Judgement? Would we be living in a better world?
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
On Delfi v Estonia… Is it time to adopt a good-Samaritan style exemption?
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
Why CG v Facebook Ireland et al might be less odd than anticipated… On Internet intermediaries and monitoring obligations
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
Updated communications data codes of practice come into effect in the UK
Legal framework for managing the processes around mandatory communications data regime formally enhanced Secondary legislation (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Acquisition and Disclosure of Communications Data: Code of Practice) Order 2015 (SI 2015/927) and the Retention of Communications Data (Code of Practice) Order 2015 (SI 2015/926)) was enacted at the end of March, bringing into … Continue reading
Google: a data controller as well as an intermediary service provider? Does this make sense? Who cares?
So everyone knows it, Google is polymorphous. It has experienced many different forms: mere facilitator, publisher, hosting provider, caching provider… The latest legal label stuck on its mutant forehead is that of “data controller” and this has been done quite “noisily” by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in its Google Spain … Continue reading