Law Notes, Essay Guides, Interviews + Commercial Awareness !!

These notes begin by considering fundamental questions regarding the nature, extent and effectiveness of information technology regulation before moving on to consider both how the law has responded to the challenges of information technologies, and the extent to which legal issues have shaped the development of information society policy.

These notes begin by exploring the nature of information and its many forms (text, audiovisual media, hyperlinks, news aggregation, cultural and technical products) and how the production, use and ownership of these is complicated by the online environment. Is there a fundamental contradiction in the enforcement of intellectual property rights and the 'copy, download, paste and upload' ethos many users of the internet rely on? What should we do about Peer-to-Peer systems and streaming of content...

This week's lecture looks at a variety of issues surrounding crime and law enforcement in the Information Society including online harassment and bullying, terrorist activity promulgated by computer and internet, phishing and computer fraud and identity theft. We will ask how law enforcement bodies can police these types of activity. These notes examine and evaluate how the law responds to harmful content including harassment, bullying and extremist content as well as the risk of fraud and iden...

These notes consider how pornographic and obscene content, as well as criminal speech, is regulated in the informational society. It analyses the distinction between indecent content and obscene content and examines how the law applies to child abuse images as well as pseudo-images. How should we regulate the problem of online obscenity and indecency? Who should be responsible? Is this a legal issue or a code issue?

The extent to which state surveillance of electronic communications is permissible has been the subject of much debate since Edward Snowden's revelations in the Summer of 2013. State surveillance raises critical questions about how the balance should be struck between the individual's right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence and the State's duty to investigate and thwart serious criminal threats. Here, we will examine the legal framework applicable t...

These notes introduce two key philosophies underpinning freedom of expression, including freedom of expression online. The US philosophy, 'the marketplace of ideas', envisages minimal governmental intervention in order to preserve freedom of thought, autonomy and democratic speech. The European philosophy allows for governmental content regulation provided certain safeguards are present. Such differing philosophies regarding the relative value of free speech when balanced with other rights and...

The main theme of these notes will be the increasing ‘datafication’ of children online and special attention is given to children’s rights to privacy and data protection. We will then move on to the specific protection for children’s personal data as provided by data protection law. Containing lecture notes, academic discussion and class notes, these notes reflect on how to interpret the GDPR in a children’s rights-inspired manner and what this means in practice.

Containing lecture notes, class notes, academic discussion and textbook notes, these notes consider in what ways it can be said that the data protection regime is broad in scope and what objectives such a broadly framed data protection regime seeks to achieve.

States retain control over how their citizens behave in the online environment through a host of laws and regulatory initiatives. Cyber-paternalism has prevailed in this way. Moreover, the divide between countries on critical matters such as online freedom of expression is not a new issue. However, in recent years States have become more vocal in their ambitions for network and, more commonly, data sovereignty, with China and Russia being two good examples. However, other regional initiatives re...

Containing lecture notes, class notes, textbook notes and academic discussion, these notes discuss whether platforms should be held responsible for the illegal content they host and, in particular, what the shift from intermediary liability exemption to a more active duty of care would entail.