Online Learning Technology, Media and Telecommunications Law Modules

The aim of the course is to educate you in the law and regulation of banking and financial services with specific relevance to their provision online. It examines the law relating to online payment services and online investment, the consumer protection issues and regulation of advertising, the authorisation and supervision of online financial activities and the legal issues of cross-border provision of financial services.

It looks at the regulation of payment systems and electronic money issuers (Payment Services Directive, E-money Directives) and the policy issues underlying this regulation (prudential supervision vs flexibility and innovation in high-technology markets). The module examines country of origin regulation and its implications for e-financial services in the EU Internal Market.

Online transactions present potential difficulties for disputants: parties in different jurisdictions with different legal rules (and possibly languages); transactional amounts that often preclude cross-border litigation and; the use of technology to effect an offer and acceptance. Cross-border redress through the courts in internet cases is made much more difficult and expensive because of these factors. Therefore internet disputes may benefit from Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) which is conducted online.

This module gives you a basic introduction to the main forms of ADR, mediation and arbitration, and explains the legal and psychological issues associated with ADR. The module then examines how ADR can be developed to become Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), conducted at a distance, obviating the need for travel and increasing the efficiency of dispute resolution, leading in particular to lower costs.

The module critically analyses examples of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), such as the Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure (UDRP) for top-level domain names or some of the ODR schemes involved in solving disputes in the financial or the communications sector. The design of such ODR is controversial and this module discusses the fairness of such systems and the trade-off between fairness and efficiency.

The module also explores recent developments in ODR in the international arena, the Organisation of American States (OAS), UNICTRAL (Working Group) and the EU all have put forward proposals for cross-border ODR in order to encourage e-commerce. Finally the module offers an opportunity to simulate ODR proceedings, role-playing online mediation or online arbitration with the use of a simple case-study and experimenting with different online communication tools.

Business and governments view outsourcing of information and communications technology equipment and services as a means to allow them to focus on their core functions, while maximising their effectiveness and efficiency through integration of the latest technology. This module explores the legal issues surrounding outsourcing arrangements including: the transfer of employees; legal due diligence for asset and intellectual property transfers; the ongoing management of the long-term contract; the establishment of enforceable performance criteria and mechanisms to manage change and; the termination of the contract and return of in-house function or transition to new supplier.

This module examines the intricate question of how software is protected as a form of intellectual property and whether the balance of protection is sufficient to guarantee innovation and economic growth. In particular, this module will cover the ongoing debate of the patentability of software from an EU, UK and US perspective, discussing the relevant decisions of the respective patent offices and the courts and the limits of patent protection.

The first unit of the module examines the nature of software and is aimed at the non-technical reader. In the following, the module considers different forms of protection for computer software, including the law of confidential information and trade secrets and copyright law.

The module considers the unique characteristics of computer programs and their protection as literary works and the limits which copyright protection confers, as copyright does only protect the expression, not the idea underlying a particular software. You examine the cases on non-literal copying (such as the English judgment in Navitaire v Easyjet). Finally, the module covers the main forms of software licensing, including the alternative model of open source licensing (such as the GNU licenses of the Free Sofware Foundation).

Privacy is a growing concern in today's society, where the power of computers and the growth of the Internet have combined to make it possible to collect and disseminate more information about an individual than ever before. This module explores the meaning of privacy as a philosophical concept, a social construct, a constitutional right and its evolution in US and European jurisprudence. The module critically examines the general administrative regime set up by the Data Protection Directive 1995/46/EC and some aspects of its varying implementation across the EU Member States.

The module covers the eight data protection principles, key concepts of the regime (such as the definition of personal data and the notion of data controller), and their application to specific ICTs and internet contexts, such as the problems created by social networking sites (ranging from open default settings to the tagging of photographs or defining the data controller) or the problems created by cloud computing (storing data in different jurisdictions, disclosure to foreign government entities or courts) or the concerns associated with profiling and data mining (for marketing purposes or state security purposes).

The module analyses the international aspects of the EU regime, such as jurisdiction, enforcement, international negotiation and solutions to the EU prohibition of international transfers to countries without an adequate data protection standard (such as the US Safe Harbor, Model Contracts or Binding Corporate Rules) and the problems for cloud computing. Finally the module looks briefly at some sectoral data protection regimes such as that pertaining to the electronic communications sector in the EU, the US and Australia.

This module explores the emergent legal and technological framework for the protection of digital intellectual property. Because of the threat of unrestricted copying and access enabled by the internet, technical solutions to restrict copying and unauthorised access were developed and policymakers were persuaded that such copyright protection mechanisms needed legal protection against circumvention. This module encompasses an examination of the WIPO Copyright Treaties and their implementation in key signatory states, including the EU (Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC), the UK (Copyright Regulations 2003) and the US'(Digital Millennium Copyright Act). The module also examines a range of Digital Rights Management (DRM) tools and how they work. In particular the module explores the conflicts between the legal protection of DRMs and other laws such as privacy and data protection and competition law. Finally one of the conundrums the module covers is the question of how to allow uses covered by exceptions to copyright where copying is restricted by DRMs.

The Internet is often portrayed as unregulated and anarchic, rife with pornography and salacious lies. User-generated content and interactive media platforms for sharing content such as Social Networking Sites and sites like YouTube or Flickr or Wikipedia may have exacerbated this.

Forms of censorship are applied in all states and include laws controlling the distribution of indecent content, content showing the sexual abuse of children, content glorifying or encouraging acts or terrorism or threatening public order, laws inciting racial hatred or laws protecting a person’s reputation and/or privacy. For cultural and historic reasons such laws differ significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as does the balance between freedom of expression and its restriction.

Internet technology, however, presents a number of challenges to what were previously settled legal issues. For example the internet crosses national borders and so does the content, which leads to a conflict between different laws and enforcement problems . Moreover when should an Internet service provider (ISP) be held liable for defamatory material- is the role of the ISP akin to that of a publisher or the distributor of a newspaper? This module will consider the problems raised by the technology, and explore how different jurisdictions - particularly the UK, the EU and the US - have responded to this challenge. Policy issues surrounding legal reform will form an integral part of the module.

Telecommunications is an inherently transnational technology. The development of telecommunications has always required substantial co-operation and agreement between nation states. Historically, the need for on-going co-operation between states has meant the establishment of inter-governmental organisations, of which the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the oldest.

In addition, the nature of the industry demands the construction of communications links across jurisdictions subject to both domestic and international law. The telecommunications industry has been subject to treaties and conventions established under public international law for the treatment and use of common natural resources, specifically the law of the sea and outer space law.

This module broadly examines four substantive aspects of international telecommunications law: (a) The construction of international telecommunications network infrastructure, both satellites and submarine cables; (b) the standards and operating rules established under the framework of the International Telecommunications Union; (c) the impact of the World Trade Organisation and associated trade agreements on national telecommunication markets and legal regimes and (d) issues for developing countries.

This module examines the legal issues pertaining to e-commerce and is addressed to lawyers wishing to act for and advise e-businesses. The module focuses on transactional issues, applying e-commerce law to the issues involved in the establishment and operation of an e-commerce business in a practical manner while maintaining academic rigour.

The module identifies gaps, conflicts and compliance issues within the current and developing legal framework on e-commerce and to what extent the existing legal framework impacts on new and emerging technologies from a multi-jurisdictional and comparative angle.

The module encompasses setting up an e-business, domain name and web-hosting issues, the use of cloud computing for e-businesses, payment issues, compliance with advertising/marketing and consumer protection regulations, dispute resolution and protecting the IP assets of the business.

The growth of e-commerce has made it an important driver of national economies. However, it has presented such challenges for nations and states as the tax presence of virtual entities and their jurisdiction to tax online transactions, under the existing bilateral tax treaties and national laws governing taxation. This course examines these issues with a focus on both direct and indirect taxation, as well as the international legal framework (OECD) that is being developed to address such issues.

The following six factors make the study of competition law as applied to the ICT sector a fascinating subject area: First, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industries are characterised by rapid and constant change. Secondly, network effects are a frequent characteristic of ICT in that the most popular provider quickly becomes the most useful which in turn makes this provider more popular which quickly leads to significant market power (the value of the product or service being dependent on the number of users, see Facebook, to name but one example). Thirdly, the extensive use of intellectual property rights in the ICT sector, conferring effectively limited monopoly rights to a provider, leads to a tension between IP rights and competition law. Fourthly, new business models that change the traditional supply and distribution systems (frequently cutting out the intermediary in a vertical chain) create possible tensions with rules of competition law established in the offline world. Fifthly in order to ensure interoperability between different ICTs standardisation is crucial, but standardisation also conflicts with free competition, requiring a balancing act. Finally the convergence between different types of technologies (such as the internet and broadcasting/communications in the shape of IPTV/video-on-demand or Voice over IP (such as Skype)) also changes the structure of ICT markets. This module analyses EU competition law, including merger control, vertical and horizontal restrictions of competition and how EU competition law has reacted to these factors (some having pro-competitive, some having anti-competitive effects). The module examines in detail recent investigations and decisions such as those concerning Microsoft and Google.

This module examines the legal implications of using trademarks online: on a website, as a metatag (invisible use in the website description) or as a keyword in a search engine (such as Google Adwords). The Module considers to what extent such uses are trademark use and constitute trademark infringement giving rise to liability of website operators, search engines and other online intermediaries as well as liability of the advertisers themselves.

The Module examines the relevant trade mark law in some of the major European jurisdictions (UK, France and Germany) and the (partial) harmonisation of trade mark law in Europe in the shape of the Trade Mark Directive 2008/95/EC and the recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice on online trademarks. The Module looks at the protection granted to famous trademarks (trademark dilution).

It compares and contrasts the approach in the EU with that of the federal jurisdiction in the US, including the jurisprudence on ‘initial interest confusion’. The topic of this Module raises interesting questions about the limits of trademark protection and how the functions of trademarks have changed and their role in the online world. It also raises interesting legal and policy questions about the liability of online service providers such as search engines and online trading platforms such as eBay and their role in enabling the sale of counterfeited products and their liability.

This module will provide a framework for understanding and analysing cloud computing technologies and services; private and public sector cloud contracts, including both standard terms and negotiated transactions; the application of data protection law to the storage and other processing of information in cloud environments, including what is regulated, who is responsible, which laws apply and the circumstances in which law enforcement authorities access information; and various other key legal and regulatory issues relating to cloud governance.