Infrastructure II commercial relationships Chris Reed Professor of Electronic Commerce Law Centre for Commercial Law Studies Notes: 1
Requirements to start trading online ISP services Website hosting Website design Making website known Search engines Linking agreements Protecting business methods Selling information Security and encryption
ISP Services Access Email Resource hosting Direct (own IP addresses) Indirect (assigned addresses from ISP’s allocation) Email Resource hosting Mirroring/other demand and traffic management Backup/disaster recovery
Hosting Kinds of resource Hosting contract issues Website Download files (http/ftp) Business resources (e.g. inventory database) Hosting contract issues Site space Access/bandwidth (availability and charging) Complaints (notice and takedown)
Website design IPR ownership IPR infringement Code, Images and Design Assignment or licence from designer? IPR infringement Direct copying Linking and framing Indirect infringement, if at all Unfair competition issues
Search Engines Basic registration Enhancing placement on results Wording of web pages Metatags Unfair competition - District Court of Düsseldorf (12 O 48/02) Domain name DRP – Hanna-Barbera v. Hay (2002 Nominet DRP 00389, scoobydoo.co.uk) Sponsored links
Web Linking Agreements Unauthorised linking and framing can amount to Copyright infringement Breach of unfair competition laws Implied licence to link Likely terms Express web linking licences
Patents for Business Methods Freely granted in US State St v Signature 149 F.3d 1368, (Fed. Cir. 1998) European position opposes grant in principle unless there is a technical effect Draft directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions (COM(2002) 92 final) Patents are national law rights, infringed by use But where does on-line use occur? Server Desktop Elsewhere
Selling and Licensing Information Products Licence rather than sale Distribution licence from content owner Geographical restrictions Identifying customer location Self-certification IP address Payment mechanism Preventing piracy Embedded information Digital rights management technology
Encryption and Security Issues What needs to be secure? Payment data Personal data EU Data protection directive Confidential information Encryption technologies SSL Proprietary higher grade encryption (e.g. for VPNs) Export controls Based on key length
Other infrastructure agreements Application hosting E.g. gaming engine Note data ownership issues Payment services E.g. RBS Bankline Affiliate agreements Website refers customer to other product/ service providers Revenue share or commission arrangement