October 2007

In this edition we look at, among other things, the Scarlet decision from the Belgian court on ISP responsibility for monitoring internet content, the French court rulings in the MySpace and Dailymotion hosting cases, the new version of the GNU General Public Licence for open-source software and the upholding of the EU Commission's 2004 ruling against Microsoft.

 

If you have any feedback on this bulletin, please email itelb@twobirds.com

National IT and E-commerce Law
	Belgium
Belgium adopts legal framework for certain trusted third party services Patrick Michielsen, Brussels The Belgian authorities have enacted a legal framework regulating certain trusted third party services. Whilst this Act does not apply only to services provided remotely or by electronic means, in practice most of the affected services will be delivered in that way. The third party services affected are archiving, time registering, registered mailing and the temporary blocking of monetary funds. The Act imposes obligations on the trusted third parties (TTPs) in relation to impartiality, security, employee duties, insurance and the provision of mandatory information to its customers.   Injunctions against ISPs - The SABAM/Scarlet ruling Laurent Masson, Brussels The President of the Brussels Court of First Instance ruled on 29 June 2007 that an Internet Service Provider active on the Belgian market must implement technical measures to prevent illegal peer-to-peer music file exchanges. Top

French Court rules to protect horse-racing database and prevent unlawful extraction
Sandrine Rambaud, Paris



On 20 June 2007, the First Instance Court of Paris issued an important and interesting ruling in a case involving database rights - offering protection by way of sui generis database rights and preventing unlawful extraction of information by third parties.

MySpace considered as a publisher by a French tribunal and found liable for copyright infringement by its members
Jeanne Méhaud, Paris



On 22 June 2007, a French humorist successfully sued MySpace before the Paris first instance tribunal for infringement of his author's rights and personality rights, as his name, image and some of his sketches were published on a MySpace webpage without his authorisation.

French judge dismisses the claim of French families association against SecondLife
Jeanne Méhaud, Paris



On 2 July 2007, a summary judge of the Paris first instance tribunal rejected the claim of two families associations against Linden Research, the operators of the online virtual world, SecondLife, and various web access providers. The judge found that the bailiff affidavit upon which the claim was grounded lacked probative value and that the claimant provided no proof of any obviously illicit disorder or any impending damage to minors.

The Dailymotion case: a tough decision for Internet hosting providers?
Julie Ruelle, Paris



Dailymotion is a free-of-charge website allowing internet users to host, store, upload and comment upon their personal videos. In April 2007, the director and the producer of a French film entitled "Joyeux Noel" sued Dailymotion on the ground of copyright infringement because their film was accessible on Dailymotion's website.

 

Top

Spanish Parliament approves law on distance marketing of consumer financial services
Ana Maria Rodriguez Costas, Madrid



On 11 July 2007, the Spanish Parliament approved Law 22/2007, on distance marketing of consumer financial services, to enter into force within 3 months. This law imposes obligations on providers of financial services by post, telephone or the internet to provide certain mandatory information prior to the entering into of any agreement, a 'cooling-off' period for consumers and guarantees against fraud.

Top

Guide to the Distance Selling Regulations in the UK
Barry Jennings, London



The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has recently reported that, following rapid growth in recent years, the UK internet shopping market is now worth over £21.4bn and in 2006 over 20 million people reportedly shopped online. Unfortunately, despite these very healthy signs, the OFT has also warned that many businesses are unaware of their obligations under the Distance Selling Regulations. Against this background, this note provides a reminder of some of the key provisions of the Regulations.

 

GPLV3 - Open-Source Licensing moves forward
Richard Graham and David Rose, London



The latest version 3 (GPLv3) of the GNU General Public Licence for open-source software was recently released following a two-year public review. The GNU General Public Licence is the most widely used open-source software licence. We assess the provisions of GPLv3.

 

Commission ruling against Microsoft upheld
Nick Boydell, London



The European Court of First Instance has upheld a 2004 European Commission decision against Microsoft.  The 2004 ruling stated that Microsoft abused its dominant position in the PC operating systems market by bundling its Media Player product with Windows, and by failing to supply interoperability protocols to competitors that would have helped them to develop rival work group server operating systems.  Microsoft was fined €497 million, ordered to sell a version of Windows without Media Player included, and ordered to make its interoperability protocols available to rivals. 

Top
 

To unsubscribe from this mailing, please reply with unsubscribe in the subject