Evolution of Litigation Support Systems
Richard Brockbank responds to Richard Harrison’s article in the Feb/March issue (vol12, issue 6), The E-mail of the Species. He maintains an understandably greater faith in litigation support systems….
Litigation & DR
Cyberobscenity and the Ambit of English Criminal Law
Professor Michael Hirst of De Montfort University looks at a recent case and questions the Court of Appeals’s approach. Professor Hirst is a contributing author to Blackstone’s Criminal Practice and a widely published author on evidence and criminal law issues….
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Data Protection Update
Europe The Council of Europe Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to the automatic processing of personal data (Treaty 108), which was the main impetus for the UK’s Data Protection Act 1984, has been extended by an additional protocol covering the powers of supervisory authorities and the rules for transborder data flows. The…
Games People Play
John McKinlay looks at the particular issues to be considered in negotiating and advising on software development contracts in the games industry. John acts for VIS Entertainment plc, developers of the chart-topping State of Emergency game….
The E-mail of the Species
Richard Harrison looks at the advance of e-mail and the problems it presents for dispute resolution procedures. He explains the need to be alert to prevent apparently comprehensive disclosure, in lists produced with the aid of technology, from pulling “the wool over the eyes of understanding”….
ISPs on Red Alert following Sweeping New Anti-terrorism Laws
The implications of the Government’s sweeping new laws to beef-up the fight against terrorism following September 11’s terror attacks on New York and Washington are likely to have far-reaching implications for all sectors of the economy. With limited debate taking place before the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 became law, many businesses seem ignorant of their wider responsibilities under the new legislation. Fiona Ghosh, a barrister specialising in data protection and IT at national law firm Addleshaw Booth & Co, looks at the new law and its impact on ISPs….
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Domain Name Registration Strategy
To register or not to register? That is the question tormenting many a soliliquising cyberDane, and many IP brand owners too. Dawn Osborne and Steve Palmer of Willoughby & Partners offer some criteria for decision and point to a useful strategy….
Expert Determination – A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?
Those who have dealt with a failed systems development project know that the complex legal and factual issues that arise represent a veritable ‘dripping roast’ for dispute lawyers. Coupled with the advent of the new Civil Procedure Rules in 1999, it is little wonder that dispute resolution clauses in IT contracts have become ever more prescriptive. We now often find disputes being categorised into technical, legal or commercial issues and to each is then applied an escalating range of medicines, from meetings between executives, to mediation, litigation or more and more frequently expert determination. Tim Toomey of v-lex questions this extended use of expert determination….
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To Disclose or Not to Disclose A Follow-up
In the August/September edition of Computers & Law, Amanda Kearsley and Nick Rudgard explored the difficulties of reconciling the principles of disclosure under the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and the disclosure of personal data under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) arising from the case of Totalise plc v The Motley Fool Limited and Interactive Investor Limited (2001) P&T 764. In December 2001, the Court of Appeal overturned the costs order made at the original hearing and set out the principles for the future. The new approach will have a significant impact on the position of organisations, such as Web site operators, from whom disclosures of information may be sought. This article reviews that approach….
Meeting the Cybercrime Challenge
This is an extract from the speech of Lord Goldsmith QC, the Attorney-General, at the SCL Award ceremony on 21 January….