Liability Exemption Research Articles

Intermediary liability & freedom of expression: Recent developments in the EU notice & action initiative

In the European Union, liability of Internet Intermediaries for third parties' content is regulated by the e-Commerce Directive. This instrument introduced liability exemptions for certain Internet Intermediaries, subject to specific requirements. The providers of so-called ‘hosting services’, for example, shall only enjoy such immunity provided they act expeditiously to remove illegal online content upon request. This mechanism, however, creates a risk for the fundamental right of freedom of expression. Without the necessary safeguards, this mechanism has the effect of inducing private censorship. Moreover, this mechanism has not been uniformly adopted in the EU countries creating a situation of great legal uncertainty. Cognisant of these problems, the EU has decided to review its rules on the Intermediary liability by commencing a ‘Notice and Action’ initiative. This paper describes the problem that the current legislation entails with regard to freedom of expression. From this perspective it, further, looks into the actions undertaken to this date by the European Commission on the topic of Notice and Action.

From porn to cybersecurity passing by copyright: How mass surveillance technologies are gaining legitimacy … The case of deep packet inspection technologies

Recent coverage in the press regarding large-scale passive pervasive network monitoring by various state and government agencies has increased interest in both the legal and technical issues surrounding such operations. The monitoring may take the form of which systems (and thus potentially which people) are communicating with which other systems, commonly referred to as the metadata for a communication, or it may go further and look into the content of the traffic being exchanged over the network. In particular the monitoring may rely upon the implementation of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technologies. These technologies are able to make anything that happens on a network visible and recordable. While in practice the sheer volume of traffic passing through a DPI system may make it impractical to record all network data, if the system systematically records certain types of traffic, or looks for specific patterns in all traffic, the privacy concerns are highly significant. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to show that despite the increasing public awareness in relation to the capabilities of Internet service providers (ISPs), a cross-field and comparative examination shows that DPI technologies are in fact progressively gaining legal legitimacy; second to stress the need to rethink the relationship between data protection law and the right to private life, as enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on human rights and Article 7 of the European Charter of fundamental rights, in order to adequately confine DPI practices. As a result, it will also appear that the principle of technical neutrality underlying ISP's liability exemptions is misleading.

Bill Would Give Liability Exemption for Use of Overdose-Fighting Drugs

Bill Would Give Liability Exemption for Use of Overdose-Fighting Drugs

Liability Exception for Navigational Error Under the Norwegian Maritime Code 276

Section 276 of the Norwegian Maritime Code exempts the sea carrier from the liability for damages arising from the navigational errors. However, there are scenarios where the carrier could be devoid of invoking this exemption of liability. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this exemption.

Compensation for the damages arising from oil spill incidents: Legislation infrastructure and characteristics of the Chinese regime

In this paper, the current Chinese regime focusing on the compensation for the environmental damages arising from the seaborne oil spill pollution was introduced, with respect to legislation infrastructure and characteristics. By now, a two-tier compensation regime, consisting of a liability scheme and a fund scheme, has already been established in China through referring to the international conventions and other states' regimes. Although its essential parts were almost identical to those of international conventions, several significant differences exist, including the norms about liability exemption and the third party liability, the fund collection and usage, as well as the amount of the levied contribution and the Special Drawing Right ceiling. With the broadens of the environmental liabilities, the longstanding issues of environmental losses arising from oil pollution have been increasingly involved in intense debates since the international conventions and some states' legislation covered them into the claim scope. A Chinese technical guideline dealing exclusively with the environmental losses was presented in detail; moreover, the differences between this guideline with the US approach were compared with respect to the compensation goals, the calculation methodologies and the compensation pathways. In the past decades, the Chinese authority has successfully settled down some famous major oil spill incidents in courts under its domestic legislation and local regulations, but the arguments on these litigations kept heated, which prompted some eco-economical experts to resolve several issues urgently, such as the compensation scope, the compulsory claim procedures, and the assessment methods of ecological compensation. Hence, some continuous efforts should be taken to explore these solutions, which are truly helpful to satisfy the requirements of the full compensation for the oil pollution damage and the marine environment protection.

No More Mere Conduit? Abandoning Net Neutrality and Its Possible Consequences on Internet Service Providers' Content Liability

AbstractThe Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications issued in May 2012 a report dealing with non‐neutral practices of the European Internet access providers. According to the report, peer‐to‐peer and voice over IP traffic are being blocked or throttled widely, and various other signs of practices that go beyond the presumably neutral role of an Internet access provider are reported. This essay discusses these non‐neutral practices from the perspective of the content liability exemption provided in the article 12 of the e‐commerce directive and asks how far the limits set out in the article can be stretched in connection with voluntarily adopted “non‐neutral” practices before the liability exemption is lost. Moreover, the essay takes a prospective look and asks what would be the effects of losing the mere conduit defence especially from copyright liability perspective, and can the risk of losing the safe harbour work as a safeguard for preserving the openness of the Internet. While it is difficult to give a definite answer at this stage, this essay suggests that a strict interpretation of the article 12 requirements might in some cases well lead to loss of the liability exemption.

The biotechnology sector and US gene patents: Legal challenges to intellectual property rights and the impact on basic research and development

Of recent commercial interest are so-called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) patents, and specifically gene patents, a subset of DNA patents that contain protein-encoding nucleic acid sequences. Heller and Eisenberg addressed the 'tragedy of the anticommons', whereby biomedical research is negatively impacted by an over proliferation of gene patents, although a review of research studies initiated over the last decade has not provided the evidence of biomedical research having been negatively impacted by single-gene patents. To remedy future potential patent-related issues to whole-genome sequencing research, it is recommended for the biotechnology industry's two major industry associations to institute an advisory policy among its memberships for each company to voluntarily recognize a patent liability exemption for firms engaged in pure (basic) whole-genome sequencing research. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.

Peer-to-Peer Privacy Violations and ISP Liability: Privacy Violations in the User-Generated Web

Since the adoption of the e-Commerce Directive, web hosting has dramatically changed. User-generated content is usually uploaded into platforms that facilitate and support users in preparing content and making it available. Such platforms are run in most cases by commercial companies who make profit by associating advertisements to user-generated materials. We shall address the legal framework applicable to ISPs managing platforms for user-generated contents. Can they be viewed as mere host providers, even though their activities include not only distributing content, but also indexing it and linking it to advertisements? As usergenerated-content often concerns third parties, we shall consider whether liability exemptions for ISPs are applicable to data protection violations regarding third parties’ information uploaded by users. We shall address this issue through a comparative analysis of cases, taking into account decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and of the European Courts of Human Rights (ECtHR), the case law of some EU member states (in particular France and the Netherlands), as well as opinions of national data protection authorities.

Le droit d'auteur contre l'accès à l'information mondiale ?

Une grande partie de l’information accessible en ligne peut être trouvée au moyen des moteurs de recherche. Pour fonctionner, ces derniers procèdent à divers traitements qui entrent mécaniquement en conflit avec certaines dispositions du droit d’auteur. Dans plusieurs pays, des juridictions ont été amenées à statuer sur la légalité des pratiques d’indexation des moteurs. Elles les ont appréciées de manière très contrastée, utilisant pour les sanctionner ou non des fondements très hétérogènes. L’absence d’unité de la jurisprudence invite à chercher un moyen de remédier à l’insécurité juridique dans laquelle les outils de recherche exercent leurs activités, en raison du risque qu’elle fait peser sur la capacité pour tous à accéder aux informations. L’incertitude pouvant difficilement être levée, il est suggéré une intervention législative afin d’aménager un régime juridique en adéquation avec l’intérêt social et économique des moteurs de recherche.

Peer-to-Peer Privacy Violations and ISP Liability: Data Protection in the User-Generated Web

Since the adoption of the e-Commerce Directive, web hosting has dramatically changed. User generated content is usually uploaded into platforms that facilitate and support users in preparing content and making it available. Such platforms are run in most cases by commercial companies who make profit by associating advertisements with user-generated materials. This paper will address the issue of the legal framework applicable to the ISPs managing platforms for user-generated contents. Can they be considered as mere host providers, even though their activities include not only distributing user-generated content, but also indexing it and linking it to advertising? As user-generated-contents often concern third parties, the paper tackles the question whether liability exemptions are applicable also to data protection violations regarding third parties’ information uploaded by users. This issue is addressed through a comparative analysis of cases on liability of providers of user generated content, in particular with regard to data protection violations. We will take into account ECJ’s decisions, EU and non-EU states’ case law, as well as opinions of the national data protection authorities.

Liability Exemption for Failure to Perform under both the Vienna Convention for International Sale of Goods 1980 and Islamic Jurisprudence

This paper discusses the concept of liability exemption and its conditions under the Vienna Convention for International Sale of Goods 1980 as compared with Islamic Juris-prudence. Also discussed are other related issues, such as liability exemption involving a third party, partial impediment and temporary impediment. It appears that the Convention deals with the legal consequences of liability exemption in a way distinct from all other systems, including the Islamic Jurisprudence, in the sense that it keeps the contract in force and only prevents damages. However, the conditions for an impediment under the Convention closely resemble those in Islamic Jurisprudence.

Liability of search engines for sponsored and natural results – the case of Google

The latest opinion of European Court of Justice (ECJ) Advocate General Poiares Maduro acknowledged the legality of the AdWords service offered by the Google search engine. If this conclusion is accepted by the ECJ, then search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or MSN will not have to change their current keyword selection practices. This does not mean, though, that location tool providers will definitely be exempted from liability for trademark infringements. The advocate general made it clear that search engine operators may be liable under national law for trademark infringement, and will not be able to rely on the limitation of liability for hosting services in Directive 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce. The situation might be different with respect to natural search services, which may fall under the application of liability exemptions in Directive 2000/31/EC. The present contribution will analyse the consequences of this interpretation for information society service providers in the European Union (EU).

Obligations and Liability Exemptions of the Carrier

Obligations and Liability Exemptions of the Carrier

Limited Liability in Turkish Law

This article examines the general characteristics of limited liability principles and exemptions to limited liability introduced for creditor protection in Turkish Law. In the first section, it examines the general application of limited liability in the Turkish Commercial Code. In the second section, it examines the exemptions to limited liability introduced by case law and statutory laws. This work concentrates on recent developments that might attract interest at international level by broadening the discussion in the area of limited liability. Thus, this article does not cover every exemption. The chosen examples introduce fundamental and controversial exemptions to the limited liability principle. The third section of the article examines the future of limited liability in Turkish law by examining the Draft Commercial Reform Bill. As the Draft Bill introduces some exemptions to limited liability in corporate groups, the issue is examined in detail as a special concern.

CISG Advisory Council Opinion No.7, Exemption of Liability for Damages Under Article 79 of the CISG

Article CISG Advisory Council Opinion No.7, Exemption of Liability for Damages Under Article 79 of the CISG was published on June 24, 2008 in the journal Internationales Handelsrecht (volume 8, issue 3).

MED's Position Paper on Digital Technology and the Copyright Act: Legislation without a Solution?

Courts in various jurisdictions have had to deal with the question of whether Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can be held liable for infringing acts committed by their subscribers. It is perhaps the most controversial legal issue emerging in the digital environment. Although New Zealand courts have yet to deal with the issue of ISP liability for copyright infringement, the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) has suggested a statutory solution for this apparent problem, which was put down in the 2002 Digital Technology and the Copyright Act 1994 Position Paper. In the Position Paper, MED proposes to exempt ISPs from liability for primary and secondary infringement under certain requirements. The suggested amendment to the Copyright Act 1994 raises several issues and questions, which will be addressed in this paper. The author argues that a total liability exemption fails to take all relevant policy factors into account and favours ISPs unilaterally. The paper suggests that ISPs do not need an exemption clause, because New Zealand's copyright law, although full of uncertainties, appears to be relatively narrow compared to other jurisdictions. The proposed reform causes more problems than it addresses. The constructive knowledge standard, which ISPs have to meet in order to fall under the liability exemption clauses, is difficult to determine and amplifies the existing uncertainties. The author suggests that instead of curing the symptoms, the legislator should get at the root of the problems, which is the cluttered secondary infringement provisions and the nebulous concept of authorisation, which is the true reason for the legal uncertainty copyright owners and ISPs are currently facing.

Hazardous wastes assessment, management, and minimization

Hazardous wastes assessment, management, and minimization

Online Intermediaries and Sustainable Market Regulation – a Smart Mix of Liability and Exemptions

The Commission has advanced sustainable and responsible behaviour of business operators in the digital environment since the adoption of the Strategy for the Digital Single Market of 2015. The question remains, how can we reach the normative goal of ensuring a safe, secure and fair online environment, where fundamental rights are protected, and responsibilities of platforms, especially large players and gatekeepers, are well defined? A “smart mix” of mandatory and voluntary rules, in combination with industry self regulation, is applied to address business and fundamental rights. This paper asks how the Digital Services Act (DSA) answers the call for sustainable market regulation. Ideally, sustainable market regulation may respond to specific risks, and impose tailored duties for “diligent economic operators”, without setting liability enhanced policy or enforcement targets for normal business activity. The paper discusses what has changed in the approach adopted in the DSA; what is the role of intermediaries in the information flows online; and how this is linked to information and data, important from the perspective of energy consumption as a parallel sustainability goal. It analyses briefly the CJEU case law on balancing liability exemptions with fundamental rights, including the right to information and its impact on the interpretation of the DSA. The paper also considers how the DSA fosters the concept of diligence in the online environment, as well as consumer empowerment, as an important feature of sustainable market regulation.

Cleaning up the Debris after "Fleet Factors": Lender Liability and CERCLA's Security Interest Exemption

Cleaning up the Debris after "Fleet Factors": Lender Liability and CERCLA's Security Interest Exemption

EXEMPTIONS FROM COMPULSORY INSURANCE:Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Exemption Regulations, SJ. 1971 No. 1933

EXEMPTIONS FROM COMPULSORY INSURANCE: Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Exemption Regulations, SJ. 1971 No. 1933 Get access Industrial Law Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1972, Pages 98–99, https://doi.org/10.1093/ilj/1.1.98-a Published: 01 June 1972