This article from Simon Dawson examines the value in litigation of the hidden information (known as metadata) encoded into most electronic documents, illustrates this by a study based on a real case and finally discusses the circumstances in which an opposing party in litigation might be compelled to provide it….
Gmail, A9.com and Blinkx are examples of the new privacy implications of personalised online advertising and advanced search engine technology. Eva Wong from Coudert Bros explores the new threat and opportunity….
The British Phonographic Industry, the trade body for record labels in the UK, is to begin action against 28 “major filesharers” – individuals who make their record collections available for others to download from peer-to-peer (P2P) sites. Charlotte McConnell comments….
The Commercial Court Working Party’s Report on Electronic Disclosure was published on 6 October. The Working Party, chaired by the Honourable Mr Justice Cresswell, was set up under the auspices of the Commercial Court Users’ Committee to investigate, and make recommendations as to, the particular problems thrown up by the disclosure of e-mails and other electronic documents and how the current Civil Procedure Rules and Commercial Court Guide on disclosure apply to electronic documents. We produce excerpts below and Laurence Eastham summarises and comments on the report….
The most cursory flip through this issue will reveal that it devotes many of its pages to disclosure of electronic documents. Not only do we have Terry Harrison’s short article and a lengthy account of the recent report of the Commercial Court Working Party chaired by Mr Justice Cresswell but the article by His Honour…
In his article (on p 21), HH Bowsher QC includes consideration of the question of whether a standard agenda should be used for IT Case Management Conferences. That question, originally raised in his address to the SCL IT Disputes Interest Group, was prompted by a note from Alex Charlton on the issue. Alex Charlton sets out the substance of that note below and calls for constructive comment and contributions from readers….
Read More… from Directions for Trial Preparation in IT Cases
Clive Davies reviews and comments upon the current state of online licensing of software and the associated legal implications and addresses the new models for the distribution of software as a service available on demand. He also contrasts some of the legal and other issues that apply to software with other online media in the music and film area….
Read More… from Online Licensing of Entertainment and Information
William Dutton reviews a series of well known IT legal aphorisms from the perspective of a social scientist. This is an edited version of his Keynote Address to the IFCLA Conference in July….
Read More… from Iron Laws of Cyberspace The Need for Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Food for Thought This issue begins to reflect the July IFCLA Conference by including a selection of the papers which were presented there. I hope to include some of the other outstanding papers, both within these pages and on the SCL Web site, over the next few months. Some of the ideas which were raised…
Matthew Murphy gives a resumé of the current legal issues in the world’s most exciting economy….
Read More… from Current Issues in IT and Communications Law in China