Clive Freedman reviews the steps which can be taken to improve the chances of a mediation of an IT dispute being successful, following the IT Disputes Group meeting on 29 September at which this topic was discussed. Part 1 of this article was published in the February/March 2004 edition of the magazine….
Read More… from Mediation of IT Disputes: Avoiding Pitfalls (Part 2)
Mark Turner and Dominic Callaghan condense the new government model contracts and guidance and highlight the key points….
Read More… from New Contract Guidance for Government IT Projects
Michael Gilbert examines outsourcing in India and the tax breaks that enhance its appeal….
Business acquisitions typically involve the up-front review of target-related information, sometimes by several potential buyers. The information reviewed during such ‘due diligence’ exercise may include customer data and employee files, which are likely to constitute ‘personal data’ under EU data privacy rules. The need for effective compliance with EU data privacy rules in the context of business transfers is often neglected, exposing both sellers and potential buyers to possible private claims and/or public sanctions. Wim Nauwelaerts takes a look at how EU data privacy law impacts on the preparatory stage of mergers and acquisitions….
Read More… from Mergers & Acquisitions In Europe: Diligence is Due When Disclosing Personal Data
HH Peter Bowsher QC answers the request to give a judge’s view of trying IT cases. He wishes to make it clear that he retired from the Bench in October 2003 and has ever since been practising as an arbitrator and dispute resolver in Keating Chambers but his views do contain many useful insights on the forensic and procedural aspects of IT litigation….
Terry Harrison argues that the retention of electronic documents by companies and corporations assumes even greater importance as electronic data disclosure grows….
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….