Elgar Law, Technology and Society series – serie

Digital technology has transformed global culture, connecting and empowering users on a hitherto unknown scale. Existing paradigms from intellectual property rights to cultural diversity and telecommunications regulation seem increasingly obsolete, confounding policymakers and provoking wide-ranging debate. Transnational Culture in the Internet Age draws on a range of disciplines to examine new approaches to regulating communications and cultural production. The insightful contributions shed new light on insufficiently examined issues and highlight connections that cut across the many different domains in which such regulations operate. Building upon the framework presented by David Post - one of the first and most prominent scholars of cyber law and a contributor to this volume - the authors address the implications and economics of the Internet's astronomical scale, jurisdiction and enforcement of the web as it relates to topics including libel tourism and threats to free speech, and the power of global communication to dissolve and recreate identities. Ideal for students and scholars of innovation, technology, cyber law and communication, Transnational Culture in the Internet Age will be a valuable addition to any library. Contributors: M. Burri, A. Candeub, K. Christen, W.W. Fu, J.M. Garon, D.J. Gervais, C.B. Graber, S.Y. Lee, L. Levi, L. Mann, M. Mueller, P.M. Napoli, S.A. Pager, D.G. Post, K.W. Saunders, M.F. Schultz, M. Shur-Ofry, H. Travis, S.S. Wildman

In this innovative book, Juan Diaz-Granados and Benedict Sheehy offer a meticulous examination of the legal foundations, structures and challenges, as well as potential solutions for the legal and regulatory issues posed by the rise of platform-based businesses. With examples drawn from the Sharing Economy, such as Uber and Airbnb, Diaz-Granados and Sheehy demonstrate how law facilitates and constrains the operation of these companies as they deliver convenient goods and services. They offer fresh insights into how and why these platforms disrupt existing legal norms, economic markets and social practices.The authors’ analysis provides an innovative law-based model, the Platform Operator-User-Provider model (“PUP”), which forms a foundation for their evaluation. Using this model, they are able to identify and differentiate a variety of PUPs not previously understood, but which differentiation makes their analysis and regulation significantly clearer. They explore potential legal categorizations of the PUP’s actors and their relationships and propose a novel regulatory approach consistent with the PUP’s triangular structure. This novel approach balances private interests with the public good by addressing power imbalances in the Sharing Economy. It supports platform operators’ private interests while implementing publicly oriented regulations that favor consumers and workers in ways that see all of law's obligations fulfilled while delivering both the economic boon and the social promise of technology.An essential read for advanced law students, academics, legal professionals, policymakers and judges, this book offers critical insights and useful analytical frameworks to understand the Sharing Economy’s platform technology businesses from a legal perspective.

This timely book sheds light on the cultural, economic and legal aspects of content creation as a form of labour, investigating concerns over working conditions, worker protection, and the status of the working relationship. Chapters written by leading experts in the field explore two opposing, yet complementary sides of work: labour as an invisible and underappreciated effort made by influencers, and labour as an economic enterprise.Bringing together authors from different disciplinary backgrounds, the editors gather various threads of research from law, media studies and economics, to raise intriguing questions regarding working as an influencer and how to conceptualise, analyse and apply labour regimes to the broad entrepreneurial portfolio of volatile creative work within the ‘hustle’ of the creator economy. The Hashtag Hustle exposes the uncertainty around the qualification and characteristics of influencer labour.Providing a detailed exploration of this contemporary topic, The Hashtag Hustle is an ideal read for scholars and academics interested in technology and internet law. The authors present global and diverse coverage of the topic across the academic fields of marketing, management, media studies and communication, making this book a wide-ranging reference tool.

Intellectual property goods are frequently referred to as intangible or abstract. Yet, traditionally, they have almost always needed to be embodied or materialized in order to be protected (and - to a certain extent - to be used and enjoyed), regardless of whether they are copyrighted works, patented inventions or trademarks. With a focus on the issue of access and the challenges of new technologies such as biotechnology and digital technologies, this unique collection analyzes the relationship between intellectual property and its physical embodiments. It contains a mixture of theoretical and practical perspectives and encompasses an interdisciplinary approach, including chapters on the connection between intellectual property and cultural heritage law, cultural property law and international trade law. The book furthermore comprises historical reflections that illuminate how intellectual property has never been purely about the intangible.Intellectual Property and Access to Im/material Goods will be of interest to scholars, practitioners and law and policymakers. Users of intellectual property goods such as museums, libraries, archives and/or other cultural institutions, as well as users of biomaterials, copyrighted works, patented inventions and/or trademarked goods will find value in this book.Contributors include: C.E. Bell, M. Blakeney, D.L. Burk, S. Corbett, S. Frankel, M.J. Madison, A. McMahon, A. Pottage, L.K. Skorodenski, G. Spedicato, P.K. Yu

The transformative impacts of digitalization on society are visible both within nation states and across borders. Information and communication technologies are typically considered beneficial for democracy. Nevertheless, this book explores the challenges that technology brings to democracy, and in so doing advances our understanding of this crucial digital, social and political phenomenon. It contributes to the broader discussion of the relationship between international, national and sub-national norms, institutions and actors in an increasingly connected world. Insightful and current, this book offers a wide variety of perspectives in an area where there is still not yet an extensive body of research. It considers, for example: the extent to which new forms of digital political engagement change traditional democratic decision-making; how receptive national governments and authorities are to digital democratic movements; how governments can uphold the values of democratic society while also ensuring flexibility with regard to the private sector; and how we should judge these developments in light of the cross-border effects of digitalization. Understanding the influence of digitalization on democracy is crucial. As such, this book will appeal to a broad audience including, but not limited to, social scientists, policy makers, legal researchers, NGOs, governments, students and lawyers.Contributors include: M. Adams, A. Banerjee, E. Bayamlioglu, C.L. Blake, J. Cudmore, C. Cuijpers, A. Dumas, C.R. Farina, M.-J. Garot, T. Gylfason, H.L. Kong, E.A. Lazzari, P.L. Lindseth, N. Luka, A. Meuwese, L.F.M. Moncau, C. Nam, M. Newhart, U. Pagallo, I. Pernice, C. Prins, R. Radu, M.S.G. Rosina, R. Weill, K. van Aeken, B. Zhao, N. Zingales

Social media offers a platform for individual self-expression and the sharing of information. However, social media issues are boundless, permeating distinct legal disciplines. The law has struggled to adapt and for good reason: how does the law regulate this medium over the public/private law divide? This book engages with the legal implications of social media from both public and private law perspectives and outlines how the law has endeavoured to adapt the existing tools to social media. The expert contributors explore a range of ideas to investigate the intersection between law and social media and they provide an insight into the challenges the legal community currently face. This collection explores key topics such as public and private law implications, the gap between the lay and legal understandings of social media, the conflict of laws regarding social media and the individual rights associated with social media. This timely study of a complex and ever-changing area of law will be of interest to legal scholars, students and practitioners and will provide a valuable source of reference for those studying or researching media and journalism.Contributors include: R.D. Barnes, E. Garnier, L.E. Gillies, E. Harbinja, E.B. Laidlaw, D. Mac Síthigh, D. Mangan, A. Mills, A.D. Murray, J. Rowbottom, A. Scott, I. Walden, L. Woods, P. Wragg

Drawing on rich, empirical case studies this innovative book provides a contemporary and comprehensive exploration of the plural, dynamic and precarious processes, materials, practices, interventions and relationships on social network sites, and their resultant power effects, when copyright and data privacy rights are at stake.In pursuit of this objective, chapters develop a cutting-edge conceptual power lens that brings together Actor-Network theory and Foucauldian scholarship on power. Applying this analytical framework to the case studies of Facebook (data protection) and YouTube (copyright), Asma Vranaki draws critical attention to underexplored and novel matters in digital regulation. These matters include resistance; the materiality of regulation; complex, contingent, fragile and dynamic digital ‘regulatory spaces’; the contingency of power; law as a heterogenous ‘assemblage’; the unintended consequence of local orderings; and the links between power and spaces. Ultimately, the author demonstrates that power effects are highly localised, precarious and contingent outcomes of manifold, complex and fluid alliances between diverse humans and non-humans.Advancing various contentions on how social network sites can be successfully regulated, the empirical analyses and multi-disciplinary approaches in this book will prove invaluable to students, scholars and practitioners of law, particularly those interested in regulation, data protection and copyright in social network sites.

'A most welcome book on the most neglected of topics by a pioneering team of interdisciplinary scholars. The volume illuminates the rendering asunder of the borders that previously protected personal information, even when the individual was in ''public'' and helps us see the muddying of the simple distinction between public and private. The book asks what public and private mean (and should mean) today as smart phones, embedded sensors and related devices overwhelm the barriers of space, time, physicality, and inefficiency that previously protected information. This collection offers a needed foundation for future conceptualization and research on privacy in literal and virtual public spaces. It should be in the library of anyone interested in the social, policy and ethical implications of information technologies.'- Gary T. Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology'How we should think about privacy in public spaces in a world of artificial intelligence and ubiquitous sensors is among the most interesting and pressing questions in all of privacy studies. This edited volume brings together some of Europe and America's finest minds to shed theoretic and practical light on a critical issue of our time.'- Ryan Calo, University of Washington'The deepest conundrum in the privacy world-especially, in light of the internet of other people's things-is perhaps the notion of privacy in public. Unraveling this practically Kantian antinomy is the ambitious aim of this important new collection. Together and apart, this intriguing assemblage of scientists, social scientists, philosophers and lawyers interrogate subjects ranging from conceptual distinctions between ''space'' and ''place'' and the social practice of ''hiding in plain sight'', to compelling ideas such as ''privacy pollution'' and the problem of ''out-of-body DNA''. With this edited volume, the team from TILT has curated a convincing account of the importance of preserving privacy in increasingly public spaces.'- Ian Kerr, University of Ottawa, CanadaWith ongoing technological innovations such as mobile cameras, WiFi tracking, drones, and augmented reality, aspects of citizens' lives are becoming increasingly vulnerable to intrusion. This book brings together authors from a variety of disciplines (philosophy, law, political science, economics, and media studies) to examine privacy in public space from both legal and regulatory perspectives. The contributors explore the contemporary challenges to achieving privacy and anonymity in physical public space at a time when legal protection remains limited in comparison to `private' space. To address this problem, the book clearly demonstrates why privacy in public space needs defending. Different ways of conceptualizing and shaping such protection are explored, for example through `privacy bubbles', obfuscation and surveillance transparency, as well as by revising the assumptions underlying current privacy laws. Scholars and students who teach and study issues of privacy, autonomy, technology, urban geography and the law and politics of public spaces will be interested in this book.Contributors include: M. Brincker, A. Daly, A.M. Froomkin, M. Galic, J.M. Hildebrand, B.-J. Koops, M. Leta, K. Mause, M. Nagenborg, B.C Newell, A.E. Scherr, T. Timan, S.B. Zhao

Using a multi-disciplinary and comparative approach, this study examines emerging and innovative attempts to tackle privacy and legal issues in cloud computing such as personal data privacy, security and intellectual property protection.An international team of legal scholars, computer science researchers, regulators and practitioners present original and critical responses to the growing challenges posed by cloud computing. They analyze the specific legal implications pertaining to jurisdiction, biomedical practice and information ownership, as well as issues of regulatory control, competition and cross-border regulation.Law academics, practitioners and regulators will find this book to be a valuable, practical and accessible resource, as will computer science scholars interested in cloud computing issues.Contributors: H. Chang, A.S.Y. Cheung, A. Chiu, K.P. Chow, E.S. Dove, X. Fan, Y. Joly, T.S.-H. Kaan, B.M. Knoppers, J. Kong, G. Master, J.-P. Moiny, C. Reed, D.N. Staiger, G.Y. Tian, R.H. Weber, P.K. Yu

This book sets out a possible trajectory for the co-development of legal responsibility on the one hand and artificial intelligence and the machines and systems driven by it on the other. As autonomous technologies become more sophisticated it will be harder to attribute harms caused by them to the humans who design or work with them. This will put pressure on legal responsibility and autonomous technologies to co-evolve. Mark Chinen illustrates how these factors strengthen incentives to develop even more advanced systems, which in turn inspire nascent calls to grant legal and moral status to autonomous machines. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners of legal doctrine, ethics and autonomous technologies, as well as legislators and policy makers, and engineers and designers who are interested in the broader implications of their work.

Creativity has been integral to the development of the modern State, and yet it is becoming increasingly sidelined, especially as a result of the development of new machinic technologies including 3D printing. Arguing that inner creativity has been endangered by the rise of administrative regulation, James Griffin explores a number of reforms to ensure that upcoming regulations do take creativity into account.The State of Creativity examines how the State has become distanced from individual processes of creativity. This book investigates how the failure to incorporate creativity into administrative regulation is, in fact, adversely impacting the regulation of new technologies such as 3D and 4D printing and augmented reality, by focusing on issues concerning copyright and patents.This is an important read for intellectual property law scholars, as well as those studying computer science who wish to gain a more in-depth understanding of the current laws surrounding digital technologies such as 3D printing in our modern world. Legal practitioners wanting to remain abreast of developments surrounding 3D printing will also benefit from this book.

Autonomous vehicles have attracted a great deal of attention in the media, however there are some inconsistencies between the perception of autonomous vehicles’ capabilities and their actual functions. This book provides an accessible explanation of how autonomous vehicles function, suggesting appropriate regulatory responses to the existing and emerging technology.Hannah YeeFen Lim explores the current capabilities of autonomous vehicles and importantly, highlights their inherent limitations. Lim provides a concise and easy to follow overview of the technology behind autonomous vehicles which encompasses hardware and software aspects, including machine learning algorithms. Having laid the technical foundation, the following chapters assess the current legal standards in negligence law that are applicable to autonomous vehicles taking the current technical limitations of the vehicles into account. Lim concludes by exploring the ethical issues associated with autonomous vehicles and proposes appropriate regulatory approaches. This book will be of great value to policy makers seeking a deeper understanding of the technology behind autonomous vehicles in order to inform and guide the development of laws and regulations. Legal practitioners will benefit from the discussion of recent use cases and applicable negligence law. Legal scholars researching artificial intelligence will also find the author’s easy to understand technical explanations and discourse on ethical considerations invaluable.

Fundamental Rights Protection Online presents an in-depth analysis of national, supranational and international attempts at online speech regulation, illustrating how the law has been unsettled on how to treat intermediaries.In this book, expert contributors explore how problems ranging from disinformation to hate speech to copyright violations are framed and tackled though legislation, codes of conduct and judicial interpretation. The chapters discuss positive law developments in the intersection of intermediary liability and rights, considering both the history and current intellectual debates surrounding European and US legislative initiatives. In addition to examining how the European Union and individual European nations regulate speech online, the book also analyses the e-Commerce Directive, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and principles established under the United Nations. It concludes that content regulation online is best captured by the notion of 'speech curation', involving both private and public actors. Taking a human rights approach to online speech regulation, this timely book will be critical reading for academics and students of law, particularly those with an interest in internet law, information law and human rights. Its exploration of intermediary liability and fundamental rights will also be beneficial for legal practitioners working in online rights protection.

The right of copyright owners to make their content available to the public is crucial in an environment driven by access. The Making Available Right provides in-depth analysis of this exclusive right and offers insights on how we can approach the right in a more transparent and principled manner.Cheryl Foong articulates a conceptual framework for understanding this right in a dynamic communications environment, critically examines the similarities and differences in its implementation across the United States, the European Union and Australia, and draws out underlying themes that serve as lessons for reform. The author builds an analytical framework for the making available right that addresses copyright's underappreciated dissemination function - i.e. encouraging the dissemination of content to the public - in conjunction with its authorship function.This thought-provoking book brings together detailed analysis of the law and a broader consideration of copyright's fundamental aims, and will be of interest to judges, practitioners and scholars concerned about how copyright deals with access going forward.

New and emerging technologies are reshaping justice systems and transforming the role of judges. The impacts vary according to how structural reforms take place and how courts adapt case management processes, online dispute resolution systems and justice apps. Significant shifts are also occurring with the development of more sophisticated forms of Artificial Intelligence that can support judicial work or even replace judges. These developments, together with shifts towards online court processes are explored in Judges, Technology and Artificial Intelligence.By considering how different jurisdictions are approaching current and future technological shifts and in particular by focusing on the different approaches in the US, UK, Australia and China and elsewhere, the author draws a rich comparative exploration of justice technology trends. Judicial commentary is considered as well as the growing scholarly discourse about these trends. Ethical and user centred design options are examined in the context of how responsive judges engage with supportive, replacement and disruptive technologies in courts.This book explores current issues regarding the responsiveness of the justice system in the pandemic era. In addition, how technology can respond and shift justice processes is a growing field of research, for judges, scholars, students and justice commentators. It provides a much-needed resource on an increasingly important topic.

In today's society, the power of someone's reputation, or influence, has been turned into a job: that of being a social media influencer. This role comes with promises, such as aspirational work, but is rife with challenges, given the controversy that often surrounds influencers. This is the first book on the regulation of social media influencers, that brings together legal, economic and ethical angles to further unveil the implications of influencer marketing.Thus far, influencers have been under scrutiny for not disclosing paid advertising, yet their activity has many more questionable implications. This edited volume combines insights from law, economics, ethics and communication science to reveal these implications and propose new ways in which public bodies, social media companies and citizens ought to relate to influencer marketing. Academics and students of Law, Economics, Ethics and Communication Science will find policy making insights in this collection. In addition, The Regulation of Social Media Influencers will be essential reading for regulators. Contributors include: E. Apa, M. de Cock Bunning, S. de Jans, M. de Veirman, R. Ducato, I. Ebert, C. Fieseler, C. Goanta, L. Hudders, M. Leiser, M. Leszczynska, D. Mangan, G. Newlands, F. Pflücke, O. Pollicino, S. Ranchordás, D. Sindermann, E. van den Abeele, S. van der Hof, G. van Dijck, V. Verdoodt, I. Wildhaber

Offering a novel and pragmatic perspective, this timely book critically examines the development of a culture of machinist regulation and questions whether this approach is appropriate in an era of rising biological technologies. Adopting an ontological approach, James Griffin considers how current regulatory frameworks favour digital technology and how this may change in the future.Griffin adeptly investigates how regulation can impact the nature of new technologies, especially as biological computing is becoming more commonplace. Chapters provide a wealth of critical analysis, considering cutting-edge technologies such as AI, prosthesis, and biological computing. Griffin outlines a proposed reformative system which focuses on the biological substrate in the creation of cultural works. The book serves to highlight the ever-increasing need for awareness of the importance of biological substrates and for a regulatory system which reflects this.The State of Cultural Biology will be an essential read for academics and students interested in intellectual property law, law and technology, legal philosophy and law’s role in society. It will also prove invaluable to policymakers and professionals looking to broaden their knowledge on the regulation of modern technology.

Novel Beings is a forward-looking exploration into the divide between proactive and reactive regulatory approaches to the cross-section of biotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI) research. Addressing an innovative area of academic study, Novel Beings questions how this research, which has the potential to create new forms of morally valuable life, could be regulated. This fascinating book examines the promises and perils of conflicting approaches to regulating emerging technologies in the unique context of this probable challenge for law and society. An impressive, and multidisciplinary, selection of expert contributors offer considerations vital to any attempt to address these issues before they become impossible to prevent or rectify. Chapters explore technologies such as genomics, synthetic biology and neurotechnologies, as well the profusion of ‘expert systems’ – algorithms and simple AI that interweave through everyday life, from smart assistants, to the financial markets, to social media. David Lawrence and Sarah Morley also discuss the global challenges for society and the laws regarding the status of these technological beings, their protections and obligations.This book will appeal to researchers and academics who are interested in the regulation of emerging technology. It will also provide a beneficial new resource for scholars and postgraduate students studying emerging technology in different fields, such as law, bioethics and philosophy.

As the COVID-19 pandemic surged in 2020, questions of data privacy, cybersecurity, and ethics of the surveillance technologies centred an international conversation on the benefits and disadvantages of the appropriate uses and expansion of cyber surveillance and data tracking. This timely book examines and answers these important concerns.Pandemic Surveillance frames and defines digital privacy and security in the context of emerging surveillance technologies, providing informed dialogue on international conversations regarding pandemic surveillance. The book examines the challenges of regulating pandemic surveillance technologies across diverse geographical settings, including Europe and Latin America, along with comparative analysis of social credit systems in China and the United States. Margaret Hu and her impressive selection of contributors explore the legal, scientific and ethical challenges in a world with a growing data surveillance architecture, providing policy recommendations and forward-looking solutions, including the importance of ethical frameworks, to minimise potential misuse and abuse of surveillance technologies.Delivering a well-rounded examination of pandemic surveillance and data-tracking technologies, this book is a crucial read for researchers and scholars focused on information security and data privacy, including specialists in the area of cyber ethics and data ethics. Students and academics interested in health policy and bioethics will also benefit from the insights in this text.

This book explores the digital future of the EU, critically analysing the governance of digital single market actors and the platform economy. It discusses notions of freedom, responsibility and accountability, examining the circulation of unlawful content through the broad lens of digital governance.Chapters delve into the automation of content moderation and the rise of algorithmic enforcement, covering personal data protection in an age of artificial intelligence. They shed light on the measures put in place by video-sharing platforms for the protection of children, identifying landmark legislation, such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, and demonstrating the importance of consent, transparency and accountability. The book further introduces a normative structure for protecting users and core democratic values while supporting enforcement, striking a balance between the responsibility of platforms and freedom of innovation.Governance of Digital Single Market Actors is a crucial resource for students and academics in human rights and IT law. Its unique insights will also greatly benefit legal and business practitioners navigating evolving regulatory landscapes.

The Future of Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence offers an extensive analysis of intellectual property and authorship theories and explores the possible impact artificial intelligence might have on those theories. The author makes compelling arguments via the exploration of authorship, ownership and artificial intelligence. First, the book advocates for a more holistic approach to authorship, arguing that there is no good reason to exclude computer-generated and artificial intelligence creations from copyright. Second, it conducts an open search for the right ‘candidate‘ for ownership. In doing so, the book explores several possible legal frameworks, including assigning ownership to the programmer, the user, the AI itself and other alternatives such as the public domain or author-in-law approaches. Third, the book explores the concept of artificial intelligence as it has developed through the years in various fields, seeking to reframe the AI legal concept.For academic scholars and law students these pages frame the theoretical discussion about artificial intelligence creations and provide in depth discussion about artificial intelligence legal challenges.