by Desislava Stankova | May 23, 2015 | Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection, Social Media Law
Imagine your ex-boyfriend posted some revenge porn pictures and data about you on his website and on Facebook. Would you like it removed from Google`s search results so that your employer and your grandmother don`t find it? What if you are a teacher convicted for a minor crime over 10 years ago and that article from the past with your name still appears in search results. Would you want that removed? Or maybe you are doctor who performed a botched procedure and now you really need all your local newspapers` articles links in Google about your malpractice deleted. Do you think if you legally requested any of the above removals, Google would comply and delete the respective search result? The answer is it depends on the situation. All of the cases mentioned above are real and have been already decided – the first two requests for deletion have been fulfilled, while the doctor`s malpractice news articles still appear on Google. Let`s see why and how is it possible. The Costeja Case In Europe there is the so called Right to be Forgotten which has been officially put in practice exactly one year ago in May 2014 when the European Court of Justice ruled against Google on the Costeja case. Mario Costeja González is a Spanish citizen who turned to the Spanish Data Protection Agency to file a complaint against a newspaper and against Google Spain and Google Inc. with the request for removal of a link to an auction notice about his repossessed home due to a debt proceedings he has resolved years ago. The Spanish court referred the...
by Desislava Stankova | May 18, 2015 | News and Events
A Brand New Website for the Lifestyle of Female Legal Professionals Today a great new online place for female lawyers with the self-explanatory name Lady in Law has been launched. www.ladyinlaw.com embarks on the ambitious journey to reach to all smart, modern, ambitious and creative women with legal profession, who want to share and learn from each other. A Founder and Editor-In-Chief of the page is Ani Kapralova – a dynamic and passionate legal professional herself with about 10-year broad practice in international corporations and law offices. Moreover, Ani is a good friend and a partner in crime and we are looking forward to a great collaboration between Lady in Law and eLaw Guide. Ani was inspired to create Lady in Law by her vocation to connect people with the same interests and ambitions, and motivated by her personal story, she believes that women with legal profession all over the world are women with power to have it all – business success and personal happiness. She promises to reveal the many faces of a Lady in Law – a face of a smart and strong professional, a face of the good looking woman with fashion style, a face of a caring mother and loving wife, a face of a funny friend and a party diva and so many more. Every week Lady in Law will meet you with one successful Lady in Law from different parts of the world, who will share her personal story about professional experience, her strengths and flaws, her personal life, hobbies and passions and her advice for success and happiness. Last but not least, you can also...
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 Rangel Hristov | Apr 8, 2015 | Accounting and Taxation, E-Commerce, News and Events
In case your company has converted a huge amount of EU-people to paying customers for your IT and online products and services, we truthfully wish you to retain them and continue growing. Yet, you should consider that commencing January 01, 2015 a new European VAT regulation is effective for all companies providing so called “electronically supplied services” to citizens or residents of the EU member states, regretfully regardless of the number of customers. List of Applicable Services To all of you who will ask what stays behind “electronically supplied services” and whether my company is a qualified provider: if you find your company’s business in the list of services below, start getting seriously interested: Website hosting and webpage hosting; Automated, online and distance maintenance of programmes; Remote system administration; Online data warehousing where specific data is stored and retained automatically; Online supply of on-demand disc space; Accessing or downloading software (including procurement/accountancy programmes and anti-virus software) plus updates; Software to block banner adverts showing otherwise known as Bannerblockers; Download drivers, such as software that interfaces computers with peripheral equipment (such as printers); Online automated installation of filters on websites; Online automated installation of firewalls; Accessing or downloading desktop themes; Accessing or downloading photographic or pictorial images or screensavers; Digitized content of books and other electronic publications; Subscription to online newspapers and journals; Weblogs and website statistics; Online news, traffic information and weather reports; Online information generated automatically by software from specific data input by the customer, such as legal and financial data (in particular such data as continually updated stock market data in real time); The provision of advertising...
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...
