Invitations to comment on draft documents, for example new guidance or responses to Government consultation papers.
Two consultations have come along at once – one from Westminster and one from Brussels – that both seem to recognise the problems with incentives that current liability rules create for sites that host third party content. Under both the UK Defamation Act 1996 and the European eCommerce Directive (2000/31/EC) hosts are discouraged from themselves […]
The Information Commissioner has now launched a draft text for a new guide on Personal Information Online, with an opportunity to comment on the text over the next three months. It’s good to see that some of the issues I raised at a preparatory meeting have been included, so I’d encourage readers to have a […]
I’ve just sent in a Janet Submission to the Ministry of Justice’s Call for Evidence on the EU Data Protection proposals. Our response mentions the good and bad things about the proposal, as discussed here previously, for Internet Identifiers: still no clarity on when IP addresses etc. are personal data, but at least more realistic […]
I’ve just submitted a JANET(UK) response to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on draft Defamation Bill. In fact my comments don’t relate to the current draft Bill, but to a longer-term part of the consultation paper (pp 40-47) on whether any changes are needed to the law of liability for Internet intermediaries. At the moment […]
Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is carrying out an enquiry into the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Online and, in particular, the effectiveness and proportionality of the Digital Economy Act 2010. Since the Act isn’t yet in operation – we are still awaiting the publication of the Implementation Code by Ofcom – it’s […]
The European Commission have recently published a more detailed action plan to support their draft Internal Security Strategy from earlier this year (that’s “internal” as in “within the continent”, by the way!). Most of the strategy covers physical security, including natural and man-made disasters, but one of the five strategic objectives is to “Raise levels […]
The Home Office have concluded that a couple of aspects of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 need to be fixed in order to comply with European law, and are doing a rapid consultation on the changes. Unfortunately although the consultation document is clear about what the problems are it doesn’t give a clear […]
Earlier this year the European Community revised its regulatory framework for telecommunications networks, so the UK Government is now consulting on how to implement those changes in UK law. Although most of the changes are not relevant to JANET as a private network, I have responded in three areas: Data breach notification, where the UK […]
The Ministry of Justice has been seeking evidence to inform its input into the ongoing revision of the European Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). I’ve submitted a JANET response, covering three issues where we frequently trip over problems with either the interpretation or the use of the current Directive and the Data Protection Act 1998 that […]
This seems to be a particularly busy summer for consultations! I’ve just submitted a JANET(UK) response to an Ofcom discussion paper on Traffic Management and “Net Neutrality”. The quotes are Ofcom’s and I’m reassured to see them because I’ve always suspected the phrase of being something of a banner that can be waved in support […]