 Subjects -> PATENTS, TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS (Total: 28 journals)
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- Authors’ rights vs. textual scholarship: a Portuguese overview
Authors: Pereira; Elsa
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 4: This article addresses the main restrictions that European textual and genetic scholars face when the literary works they study are not in the public domain. Using Portugal as an example, the essay illustrates the most relevant contours of copyright policy and licensing in countries with a legal tradition of Droit d’Auteur, which protects not only intellectual property but also the sensitive moral interests of authors. While considering a few limitations and exceptions for teaching and scientific research secured in the law, the paper refers to case studies that showcase legal shortcomings in balancing authors’ rights with the academic freedom of textual scholars, especially when digital editorial methodologies are involved. We argue that the dominant protection currently afforded to copyright holders in Europe undermines the research ecosystem of this disciplinary field, rendering knowledge production and scientific publication practically unfeasible for anyone investigating textual variance in the works of 20th- and 21st-century writers. After drawing attention to the problem, we plead for policy-making adjustments to allow greater freedom in using copyrighted works for humanities research and scholarship.
PubDate: 2023-09-20T00:00:00Z
- Digital Higher Education and Copyright Law in the Age of Pandemic - The
Hungarian Experience
Authors: Mezei; Péter
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 2: Digital technologies have triggered significant methodological, business and behavioural changes in higher education. The increasing gap in the needs and possibilities of digital learning and education was partially due to the rigid and outdated copyright norms, which were designed for an analogue environment. The legislation of the European Union has accepted Directive 2019/790 on Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market (CDSM Directive) in 2019. As a part of this reform, the EU has amended (broadened) the scope of educational limitations and exceptions. Life has abruptly changed with the global outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. It has led to the closure of the premises of educational institutions and libraries. The online access, use and sharing of copyright protected materials turned out to be the only way to continue education in the early lockdown period and continues to be a significant way of learning in the “new normal”. Hungary had to face the same challenges of the pandemic. Importantly enough, this country was the first to implement Article 5 of the CDSM Directive in April 2020. The empirical analysis of the new copyright regime and the effects of pandemic on higher education (and educational limitations and exceptions) is nevertheless still missing. This paper intends to fill in this gap. First, the paper shortly introduces the novelties of the CDSM reform related to educational limitations and exceptions in general and in Hungary, and discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected higher education throughout 2020-2022. Second, it includes the empirical analysis of the awareness, perceptions and use practises of students, educators and librarians of the University of Szeged with respect to digital (distance and online) learning and teaching in the pandemic.
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-30T00:00:00Z
- Online Learning as a Commons: Supporting students’ data protection
preferences through a collaborative digital environment
Authors: Wong; Janis, Racine, Lea, Henderson, Tristan, Ball, Kirstie
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 2: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology in education, where higher education institutions had to implement online teaching models overnight, without time for due consideration of appropriate data protection practices or impact assessments. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) attempts to limit the negative effects caused by the digitisation of education such as lecture capture, tutorial recording, and education surveillance. The GDPR, however, may be insufficient in removing the power imbalance between students and their institutions, where students as data subjects have no choice but to accept their institutions’ terms or be locked out of academia. To increase protection of students’ autonomy, we propose an online learning data protection-focused data commons to support their agency with regards to protecting their personal data. We explain how a commons could apply to online learning, then develop and test an application to put the commons into practice. From our results, we find that although over 50% of students trust universities and staff with their online learning personal data, more transparency on institutional policies and data protection rights can support higher online learning participation rates, help mitigate potential data protection harms, and give students agency over their personal data beyond consent. We conclude that further research is required to move away from consent as the lawful basis for tutorial recordings, support inclusive online learning pedagogies, and balance the implementation of educational technologies with the need to deliver online learning to benefit students’ academic experience.
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-29T00:00:00Z
- From data subjects to data suspects: challenging e-proctoring systems as a
university practice
Authors: Giannopoulou; Alexandra, Ducato, Rossana, Angiolini, Chiara, Schneider, Giulia
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 2: E-proctoring is a set of software and tools to monitor students’ behaviour during online examinations. Many universities have implemented this type of invigilation in response to the lockdowns during the pandemic to guarantee the validity and the integrity of exams. However, the intrusiveness of such technology into the students’ personal environment along with major accuracy problems (e.g., in authenticating black students) has attracted the scrutiny of various European data protection authorities and, more recently, equality bodies.In this paper, we critically approach the European normative framework available in countering the risks and situations of harms generated by e-proctoring through the lenses of data protection and anti-discrimination law. This work, in particular, is one of the first to systematise and analyse the corpus of online proctoring-related decisions that have emerged in the EU over the past three years.After an overview of the technical aspects of such technology and an outline of the legal issues debated in the literature, the paper will reconstruct and discuss the convergences and divergences in how courts and independent authorities have assessed the lawfulness of online invigilation tools. In our analysis, we observe that such instruments were evaluated differently depending on the concrete features implemented. However, with some notable exceptions, the General Data Protection Regulation and the anti-discrimination framework have largely proven helpful to combat the most intrusive forms of e-proctoring deployment or to mitigate their risks. Nevertheless, to ensure a safer and fairer educational environment, we conclude that a few crucial issues—including the effectiveness of the collective enforcement of rights, discriminatory effects for people not covered by a protected ground, and the governance of edTech within the university—should be further taken into account.
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-29T00:00:00Z
- The exceptional mismatch of copyright teaching exceptions in the
Authors: Trapova; Alina
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 2:
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-29T00:00:00Z
- A liberal infrastructure in a neoliberal world: the Italian case of GARR
Authors: Caso; Roberto, Pievatolo, Maria Chiara
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 2: This paper aims to outline some issues concerning the interaction, in European Union law, between data policy, university regulation, open science, intellectual property and infrastructure policy. On the one hand, such issues primarily regard intellectual property: exclusive rights deriving from copyright and related rights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. On the other hand, they also concern forms of exclusive control on data that are not strictly related to intellectual property but enhanced by the control on technology and infrastructure. This exclusive control can accompany or be independent from the protection of intellectual property conferred by law.To make science open and to limit the market power of intellectual monopolies and oligopolies, restricting and reshaping intellectual property rights on data is not enough. It is also necessary to create or to revive public infrastructures and to implement open standards for texts, data, and code. An example of a public infrastructure for a university is the Italian consortium GARR, which during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to anchor the local debate about academic and teaching freedom to an actual and viable alternative, protecting independent and public knowledge not just de jure but de facto as well.
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-29T00:00:00Z
- Open Educational Resources through the European lens: Pedagogical
opportunities and copyright constraints
Authors: Priora; Giulia, Carloni, Giovanna
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 2: The adoption of Open Educational Resources (“OERs”) in schools and universities is a phenomenon also on the rise in Europe. Increasingly relying on digital, open, freely adaptable materials that are specifically designed for educational purposes is not only a response to the disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, but a consistent policy step towards an inclusive, diverse, and quality education in the EU. The article examines the potential and constraints of OERs from both a pedagogical and legal perspective. It demonstrates how these types of resources are fit for purpose to achieve diversity, knowledge co-creation, and student agency in educational ecosystems. It also flags points of weakness of the EU copyright legal framework, such as the lack of harmonization of rules on co-authorship and adaptation, which need to be tackled to fully enable OER-enabled pedagogies across the Union.
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-29T00:00:00Z
- Towards a Right to Digital Education' Constitutional Challenges of
Edtech
Authors: Celeste; Edoardo, De Gregorio, Giovanni
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 2: Education is increasingly going digital. The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled students to attend school and college online through the use of often private digital platforms. For many this change has been regarded negatively, yet for some, especially students with disabilities or from remote geographical areas, this opportunity has been essential to access or continue their studies, thus making the right to education, as enshrined in many national and supranational constitutional texts, even more effective. Despite the advantages of introducing a right to access education remotely, this paper examines the constitutional drawbacks of this proposal. The first part of the article argues that a right to digital education should be recognised as a component of the right to quality education in the digital age in terms of possibility for the individual to access educationalmaterials online, as well as a right to acquire sufficient digital skills to fully participate in democratic society. However on the path towards a full implementation of this right lies a structural obstacle: education is not only increasingly digital but also private. The second part of the paper examines the constitutional challenges generated by private actors dominating the edtech sector. While education has usually been conceived of as a public service, increasingly this area of welfare is left in the hands of private actors that have the power to shape the technical and social infrastructures to exercise constitutional rights. The paper concludes with an assessment of existing regulatory frameworks to ensure that private organisations contribute to fostering the right to digital education.
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-17T00:00:00Z
- Editorial
Authors: Ducato; Rossana, Priora, Giulia
Abstract: Journal of intellectual property, information technology and electronic commerce law 14 (2023) 2:
PubDate: 2023-06-17T00:00:00Z
- Actions and reactions in commodifying cultural heritage hosted in museums
Authors: Sappa; Cristiana
Abstract: 14 (2023) 1: Museums are inclusivity-aimed institutions with a mission of education to knowledge. This mission can be appropriately implemented via the traditional initiatives of preservation and of exhibition, and the less traditional initiatives of sharing information related to cultural heritage via the internet or the metaverse, or by elaborating material to be used by visitors in an interactive fashion. It is undeniable that all these initiatives are costly. So, many museums did not resist the temptation of introducing self-fund mechanisms via the use of different legal tools, such as contractual provisions, national rules on cultural heritage and copyright principles. By exploiting these legal measures museums establish a control-based approach, that make their focus shift to market dynamics. In the last decade, an open-access approach in this field was initiated by the civil society via bottom-up initiatives, on the top of which the legislator added some regulatory measures more recently. The latter expressly aims at consolidating access and education to knowledge. However, a closer look to the entire set of relevant regulatory measures in particular reveals that underpinning economic interests are the main priority of such an approach related to making images of cultural heritage collected in museums available for re-use purposes, at a limited cost. These economic interests are only indirectly those of museums, while they are directly those of businesses. Thus, libre open-access practices and policies that encourage wide re-uses, should they be bottom-up or derive from a regulatory framework, would certainly bring two advantages. The first would be to let museums focusing on educational purposes in a fashion that is in line with the digital technology facilities; the second one would be to encourage market operators of any size to conduct business.
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z
- The Digital Services Act: transparency as an efficient tool to curb the
spread of disinformation on online platforms'
Authors: Strowel; Alain, De Meyere, Jean
Abstract: 14 (2023) 1: The Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims at the creation of a safer online environment in Europe, addresses the lack of transparency in content moderation by online platforms. Therefore, the DSA imposes several new due diligence obligations. This article explores the implications of these transparency obligations on the spread of disinformation, in particular on the Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) that will be subject to additional scrutiny. The article highlights the potential benefits of the new regulatory framework that enables the access transparency of vetted researchers to platforms’ data, empowers users by reducing information asymmetry and mitigates certain risks. However, questions remain regarding the information overload for the regulators and the effectiveness of the future DSA enforcement. In view of the possible enforcement issues, the article proposes to go further, for example by adding a general principle of transparency (beyond the list of due diligences obligations) and by strengthening the co-regulatory and multistakeholder model of regulation (beyond what the DSA helpfully provides).
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Editorial
Authors: Metzger; Axel
Abstract: 14 (2023) 1:
PubDate: 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Book Review on Data financed apps as a matter of data protection law
Authors: Vettermann; Oliver
Abstract: 14 (2023) 1:
Keywords: Book Reviews
PubDate: 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Platform regulation, content moderation, and AI-based filtering tools:
Some reflections from the European Union
Authors: Barral Martínez; María
Abstract: 14 (2023) 1: Online platforms have voluntarily relied on screening tools for content moderation purposes for quite some time now. They do so to deal with the problems of scale and the speed content is shared online. Currently, the efforts of online platforms to fight illegal and harmful content are continuously focusing on innovative AI-based solutions for better performance of their content moderation systems. At the same time in the EU, new rules on content moderation are entering the arena. These rules may require a more active role of online intermediaries to detect and remove illegal content in their sites. This begs the question whether we are moving towards a filtering obligation in disguise on online intermediaries. If that is the case, are AI-based filtering systems fit to avoid blocking lawful content' What safeguards should be taken at regulatory level to ensure the protection of fundamental rights of online users'
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z
- All Agents Created Equal' The Law’s Technical Neutrality on AI
Knowledge Representation
Authors: Lerch; Philipp
Abstract: 14 (2023) 1: The term “Artificial Intelligence” comprises different approaches. They can be roughly divided into rule-based approaches and approximative machine learning. The author discusses the legal implications of this technological choice on the background of Product Liability law. It stands to reason that using rule-based approaches may be prone to stricter safety standards than approximative.
Keywords: Articles
PubDate: 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z
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