International Journal of Law and Information Technology - recent issues

The "Final" Privacy Frontier? Regulating Trans-Border Data Flows

Gunasekara, G. — 2009-06-25

This article examines the threat to privacy posed by the transfer of personal information from one jurisdiction to another. Despite international trends towards greater protection of personal information significant challenges to personal privacy arise in this context. These include the use of outsourcing by businesses, the encroachment of security laws and the potential ‘spill-over’ of technologies developed for combating terrorism into the private sector. Also significant are technologies enabling the ‘profiling’ of individuals and ‘data mining’ across borders. Against this backdrop the article considers existing jurisdictional responses towards regulating personal information flows across borders. It considers various actual or proposed solutions including ‘safe-harbours’, contractual mechanisms and extra-territorial applications. The article concludes that many of the existing approaches to regulating trans-border information flows are to some extent deficient and suggests the need for a new ‘fourth generation’ set of data protection protocols. In formulating the latter, analogies are drawn from other relevant areas of the law in order to furnish creative solutions to the problem.

Doing Business with Consumers Online: Privacy, Security and the Law

Shelly, M., Jackson, M. — 2009-06-25

The purpose of this paper is to identify privacy, security and legal issues facing small business in the business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce environment. Forty websites of small businesses based in Australia are examined to assess whether the content on these websites conforms with legal obligations. The study found that many of the websites examined appear not to be complying fully with their obligations under privacy and fair trading legislation as well as with those imposed in contracts with merchant facility providers.

XML For Click-Through Contracts

Ahmad, I., Kim, H. S., Leff, L., 'Dazza' Greenwood, D. — 2009-06-25

We discuss XML standardization for the contracts to which one agrees prior to downloading software or using web services; these have formed a scenario or use case for the requirements of the OASIS Legal XML Member Section Electronic Contracts Technical Committee[7]. We implemented a proof-of-concept of the complete chain from developing the XML contract, to the end user agreeing to the form contract, and then to that user searching the set of contracts to which they agreed.

Cybersquatting: Prevention better than cure?

Moore, M. — 2009-06-25

Since the early Commercialisation of the World Wide Web, cybersquatting as a phenomenon has been in existence and has been consistently rising; with recent 2006 figures showing a 25% increase up from the previous year.

This paper examines the various legal mechanisms that have been employed to deal with cybersquatting by examining firstly, the reaction of the Courts and secondly, the reaction of the registering authorities. Finally the paper looks at some of the more recent attempts to curb cybersquatting at the registration level by the employment of phased registration periods and additionally some radical solutions suggested in some circles will also be examined.

The paper concludes that while the reactive strategies developed by the Courts and the registering authorities are effective once cybersquatting is committed, the real solution must surely lie in preventative action at the registration stage if the battle to curb cybersquatting is finally to be won.

Legal Evidence, Police Intelligence, Crime Analysis or Detection, Forensic Testing, and Argumentation: An Overview of Computer Tools or Techniques

Nissan, E. — 2009-02-19

Notwithstanding a few seminal precursors from the late 1980s, it is only with the new century that the modelling of reasoning on legal evidence has emerged as a significant area within the well-established field of AI & Law (active since the 1970s). An overview such as the one in this article has never appeared before in the literature. It is three-pronged: it is about the modelling of reasoning about legal evidence, about tools for legal argumentation, and about select areas in forensic science. For newcomers into the modelling of legal evidence by means of AI techniques, it is essentialnot to simplistically blunder into such design choices that would result in flaws making the tools unusable by legal professionals, so it is important to be aware of ongoing controversies. Other tools are appropriate for law enforcement, e.g., tools assisting in crime analysis. In the compass of this article, we only very briefly deal with the modelling of arguments as such, and we only sketchily foray into forensic science, by selecting some areas within it by way of exemplification.

Smoothing Some Wrinkles in Online Dispute Resolution

Mann, B. L. — 2009-02-19

This paper describes a persistent problem in online dispute resolution, namely substandard ODR presentations made by inarticulate and lesser dispute-wise disputants make the bargaining conditions uneven. Three innovations are introduced to address the problem: the SSF design solution, expert-peer online assessment, and a formula for expert-peer assessment. The innovations build on previous work, and have been modified to accommodate the limitations and requirements of online dispute resolution and address the problem in section 1. The paper is organized in five sections. Section 1 describes the uneven condition favoring the reputable disputants in online dispute resolution, that affects inarticulate and disadvantaged, lesser dispute-wise disputants. Section 2 is a review of the literature of three common solutions to the problem: structured argument solutions, technology-intensive solutions and design presentation solutions. The four research questions addressed at the end of Section 2 are concerned only with the factors contributing to the stated problem. Section 3 is an introduction to the SSF design solution for online dispute presentations to address the uneven conditions for less dispute-wise claimants and respondents. Section 4 introduces a method of presenting communications in online dispute resolution called expert-peer online assessment, and an expert-peer formula for evaluating online dispute presentations. Section 5 is a discussion of the research questions introduced in section 2 over the concerns expressed about ODR, and a considered review of the innovations in light of the literature on ODR.

Private Power, Public Interest: An Examination of Search Engine Accountability

Laidlaw, E. B. — 2009-02-19

As information becomes a critical commodity in modern society, the issue is raised whether the entities that manage access to information, that are tools for public discourse and democracy, should be accountable to the public. The Internet has transformed how we communicate, and search engines have emerged as managers of information, organizing and categorizing content in a coherent, accessible manner thereby shaping the Internet user's experience. This article examines whether search engines should have public interest obligations. In order to answer this question, this article first examines comparative public interest regulatory structures, and the growing importance of the Internet to public discourse. Then examined is how the algorithmic designs and manual manipulation of rankings by search engines affects the public interest without a sufficient accountability structure. Finally, the values necessary to a public interest framework are suggested.

WiFi Roaming: Legal Implications and Security Constraints

2008-11-03

WiFi technology has become the preferable form for mobile users to connect to the Internet. The growing popularity of WiFi-enabled devices and the increasing number of WiFi networks guarantees that this trend will continue in the future. Since a single network provider is usually not able to ensure WiFi coverage for its own users across many geographic locations the WiFi roaming technology appears to be the promising solution. A special attention upon the practical deployment of WiFi roaming should be paid to possible threats coming from the misuse of technology. In this light we analyze various legal implications that might become relevant due to the deployment of WiFi roaming and discuss several risks and problems related to the security during the establishment of roaming connections between mobile devices and the Internet.

Addressing the "Cyberspace Fallacy": Targeting the Jurisdiction of an Electronic Consumer Contract

Gillies, L. E. — 2008-11-03

There are widely held views of how the jurisdiction of an online contract should be established. Cyber-liberterians favour a separate cyberspace jurisdiction, maintaining that online activities should be regulated entirely separately without recourse to national courts and laws. Traditionalists maintain that the existing paradigms of location and activity are capable of determining the jurisdiction of an online contract. What is agreed is that the dematerialised nature of online activity renders the location of the parties and the place where their commercial activities take place difficult to determine. Whilst Reed's "Cyberspace Fallacy" acknowledges the challenges in determining the jurisdiction of an online contract, that author also reminds us that such challenges are not new. A variety of connecting factors have been used to establish jurisdiction of a contract conducted by electronic means. As Zekos suggested recently in an article in this Journal, 2 consideration must be given to a new means of determining the jurisdiction of an online contract. It is the purpose of this article firstly, to highlight the difficulties with the operation of existing connecting factors in establishing the jurisdiction of an electronic contract and secondly to propose how "intentional targeting" – if properly defined - can provide an efficient and adaptive connecting factor to determine the jurisdiction of an electronic consumer contract.

When Rights Clash Online: The Tracking of P2p Copyright Infringements Vs. the EC Personal Data Directive

Vincents, O. B. — 2008-11-03

Curriculum Themes: Teaching Global Cyberlaw

Quirk, P. — 2008-11-03

Teaching in rapidly changing areas of law can lead to disjointed syllabi, and soon-forgotten materials. This article outlines a series of ten themes for teaching ‘cyberlaw’ in an attempt to overcome such problems. The themes cover jurisdiction, agency, payments, risk transfer, security, taxation, crime, history, privacy and IP. These can be adapted or changed to suit the needs and preferences of individual teachers. The article discusses each theme in the light of recent developments in the law. A set of advanced sub-topics is also proposed for the future.