by Desislava Stankova | Aug 29, 2015 | Blogging, Contracting, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
We already discussed how to use other people’s creative works and how to protect your intellectual property online, so now it is time to find out more about the legal aspects of privacy when running your blog, as well as other important issues to consider such as spam, defamation, using third party blog tools, user generated content, etc. Privacy and data protection or just do not share details of your neighbor’s PMS on your blog Processing other people’s personal data is carefully regulated in Europe and should be taken seriously. Under EU law, personal data can only be gathered legally under strict conditions, for a legitimate purpose. Personal information is any information about an individual who can be identified and relates to his physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity. It includes data such as name, address, phone number, place of birth, ID and passport data, marital status, professional biography, mental condition, sexual orientation, race, religious views, property and financial status, participation in companies, etc. Processing personal data more or less includes any operation performed with regards to the information, such as collection, recording, organization, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission and many others. Simply said, if you happen to share info on your blog about your coworker who broke their leg and stayed home on sick leave, maybe a bit too long, be advised that this may be illegal, unless your colleague expressly agreed on you posting this information. One of the most important principles of data protection is that personal data should not be processed at all, except when certain conditions are...
by Desislava Stankova | Jun 25, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
You are an EU company selling services online (information society services) or you are planning to establish an entity somewhere in the EU and to sell to EU clients. Not a problem, but you just need to be aware of a list of items that the company must cover in order to comply with all regulations for a EU business selling services online. The applicable acts to be taken into account would be different depending on the specific country you operate but regardless of the country, they all implement the EU’s Electronic Commerce Directive 2000 and others applicable into local law and practically every commercial website would be covered by it. The following article covers Business to Business (B2B) transactions, i.e. selling to business clients online. For companies selling to individual consumers (natural persons), additional requirements and specific consumer protection rules apply that will be included in my next post. MINIMUM INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED: You are bound by law to provide at least the following information to your potential clients: the name of the service provider on the site.; the geographic address of the company; the details of the company including email address; details of a register, including any registration number; if the company is a member of a trade or similar register available to the public, confirmation of that; the particulars of the relevant supervisory authority if the services are subject to an authorisation scheme; details of any professional body or similar institution with which the company is registered, their professional title and the Member State where that title has been granted; a VAT number – even...
by Desislava Stankova | Apr 21, 2015 | Blogging, Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events
It has not been long since you started your blog, but it turns out to be so valued by your readers that they gracefully start using significant parts of your content on their own blogs, corporate websites and other materials. As flattering as it is, the appreciation of your work, you probably prefer to be asked for permission by others who enjoy using your work, and certainly the law gives you that right. Here are several useful strategies to protect your intellectual property online. Protect Now or Cry Later It is always better to act before your intellectual property is infringed, so that once it happens, you are better prepared to fight back and your protection is stronger than your infringer is prepared. Keep in mind that in case of a copyright dispute, you will need to be able to demonstrate that you are the author of the disputed content (or it was created for you) and the date when you created and published it. Secure Your Contracts If possible, sign written contracts with anyone who helps you create and maintain your blog – e.g. web designers, image and article contributors, marketing experts who help you make it popular, everyone. This way you will have written evidence about your rights to use whatever is posted on your blog. Special attention should be paid to ensure you have the rights to your own website if you pay someone else to develop it. To read the full article, check Chicoverdose where it was originally...
by Desislava Stankova | Apr 14, 2015 | Blogging, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events
Congratulations – you have a blog now and you are ready to start writing, creating, sharing and networking! Yet, all the fun may be intertwined with the risk of legal liability – think take down letters, complaints and infringement claims. Not a funny side of blogging, I know. Let’s look at blogging from several legal perspectives: Part One will focus on what bloggers should do or avoid doing in order to stay away from legal liability when using materials created by others; Part Two will explore the various ways to protect your creative works and rights when blogging; And in Part Three, we will go into further aspects a blogger may encounter legal liability or just mere communication problems, e.g. defamation, illegal processing of personal data, using third party blog tools, etc. Copyright means “I can copy it”, right? Actually, copyright means that once you are the original author or copyright holder of a creative work that is fixed in a tangible medium (e.g. paper, online, etc.), you have the exclusive right to use it (sell, make copies, publish, etc.), and to prevent others from using it without your permission. Plus, in most cases, you can demand payment for use. Unlike trademarks and patents, copyright is granted the moment the work is created and fixed. For example, if the blogger only thought about the blog post in their mind, this obviously would not be enough for copyright protection, but once the article is written in a computer file or posted online, as long as it is original and creative, it becomes a work protected by copyright, without the need...
by Desislava Stankova | Mar 11, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
Internet offers endless business opportunities and amazing flexibility, yet laws do extend not only to the good old offline ventures, but to e-businesses too and like it or not, they should be obeyed. The applicable regulations however tend to be neglected sometimes leading to legal vulnerability of the respective business, disputes or simply customer dissatisfaction. Some of the most common mistakes related to legal compliance of online businesses that I have seen in my practice include: The Copy/Paste Sin Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy have been copied from the internet and are not fully applicable to the case. In many situations they are not even followed by the business itself. Forgetting the Change Changes in operations and customer service have not been reflected with a respective modification in the Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy or other legal documents. Even changes in the applicable laws are not reflected by the Terms. It`s all about the Contract No written contracts have been concluded with the website developer, content providers, logo designers, etc. to clearly set the intellectual property rights to these works. In case of intellectual property dispute you need to be able to prove two basic things about the disputed work – who created it (i.e. you or someone hired by you) or when was it created (i.e. before the other party is claiming they created it). To read the full article, check Chicoverdose where it was originally...
by Desislava Stankova | Feb 10, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
So, you want to start an online business? It is easy, isn’t it – you get a domain, buy a hosting, setup a web site and, voila, you are cashing in 24/7. Right? Wrooong! You forgot the lawyers. There are tons of them and they can make your life hell. If you don’t want this to happen, you need to figure out some crucial stuff in the “Big L”-area. Spell it with me: L-E-G-A-L-S-T-U-F-F. E-commerce offers endless opportunities with the unlimited number of potential worldwide customers, the ease of purchasing a product from each location, the optimization of business processes. However anyone engaged in it should keep in mind that laws and rules exist online as much as they do offline. Knowing the legal aspect of e-commerce turns out to be one of the key factors about online business success. Since it is a wide topic and a professional legal advice is needed in each particular case, this post will only sketch the applicable legal requirements. B2B online relations differ from B2C ones, mainly in the more rigorous standard to ensure safety and consumer protection in B2C web businesses, but in order to summarize, these are the main legal aspects of e-commerce, particularly in the EU. Light Bulb One: Protect Your Most Precious Asset One of the very first steps to be taken is the domain name registration and its protection. It is important due to the fact that the domain name contract, which is basically a service agreement, protects the domain name in the relation between the parties to this agreement, but it could not automatically offer protection...
