Human Rights
The Right to Forget and not Forget in Spain
On May 13, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a landmark decision that allows EU citizens the “right to be forgotten” – basically, the right to withdraw consent over the processing of an individual’s personal information. Under that ruling, individuals have the right to ask Google and other search engines […]
A New Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility within the IGF
The re-posting of this analysis is part of a cross-posting collaboration with MediaLaws: Law and Policy of the Media in a Comparative Perspective. Two weeks ago, the Secretariat of the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum (IGF) approved the creation of the Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility (DC PR). This new component of the IGF […]
The Future of Rights: Intellectual Property, Economic Inequality and the ‘Digital Divide’
A quarter century since he helped to create it, the man widely regarded as the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has renewed calls for a Digital Bill of Rights to help preserve the open and innovative character of his invention and to protect human rights in the so-called digital age.
Dating Sites Scrape Internet for Women’s Photos, Including Those of Deceased
Dubious and likely illegal image scraping is alive and well. And outside of particularly public, harmful cases like Rehtaeh Parsons’ photo ending up on a dating site, few organizations or governments seem to be effectively coordinating to stop the practice.
When the Internet Has a Party, Everyone's Invited: IP Law Issues at the Internet Governance Forum 2013
There is a little-known place in the world where you can approach absolutely anyone—a Brazilian federal minister or WIPO legal officer; a policy manager at Google or the world's leading cybersecurity expert; an Indonesian LGBT activist or Pakistani digital rights advocate; or someone at some intersection of civil society, government, business, academia, law, technology, or […]
EA Loses Battle to Put Athlete’s Likeness in Video Game
In a victory for athletes specifically, and proponents of personality rights generally, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has ruled against Electronic Arts (EA) in its use of former college quarterback Sam Keller’s likeness in the NCAA Football video game series. This news has costly implications for EA.
Canada and US Continue to Diverge on Geolocational Privacy
Just because technology now exists to track a person through their mobile phone does not mean you are legally entitled to do so. This was the main conclusion by the Supreme Court of New Jersey in their unanimous, groundbreaking geolocational privacy decision in State v. Earls.
WIPO Conference: Bringing Copyrighted Works to Visually Impaired Persons and People with Print Disabilities
From June 18- 28, nation states were conducting negotiations for an international treaty to secure copyright exceptions for the visually impaired and people with print disabilities. These discussions, hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), may secure the ability of nation states to allow conversion of published works to braille, large print and audio […]