Infrastructure II commercial relationships Chris Reed Professor of Electronic Commerce Law Centre for Commercial Law Studies 1

Requirements to start trading online l ISP services –Website hosting l Website design l Making website known –Search engines –Linking agreements l Protecting business methods l Selling information l Security and encryption

ISP Services l Access –Direct (own IP addresses) –Indirect (assigned addresses from ISP’s allocation) l l Resource hosting l Mirroring/other demand and traffic management l Backup/disaster recovery

Hosting l Kinds of resource –Website –Download files (http/ftp) –Business resources (e.g. inventory database) l Hosting contract issues –Site space –Access/bandwidth (availability and charging) –Complaints (notice and takedown)

Website design l IPR ownership –Code, Images and Design –Assignment or licence from designer? l IPR infringement –Direct copying –Linking and framing l Indirect infringement, if at all l Unfair competition issues

Search Engines l Basic registration l Enhancing placement on results –Wording of web pages –Metatags l Unfair competition - District Court of Düsseldorf (12 O 48/02) l Domain name DRP – Hanna-Barbera v. Hay (2002 Nominet DRP 00389, scoobydoo.co.uk) –Sponsored links

Web Linking Agreements l Unauthorised linking and framing can amount to –Copyright infringement –Breach of unfair competition laws l Implied licence to link –Likely terms l Express web linking licences

Patents for Business Methods l Freely granted in US –State St v Signature 149 F.3d 1368, (Fed. Cir. 1998) l 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) l Patents are national law rights, infringed by use l But where does on-line use occur? –Server –Desktop –Elsewhere

Selling and Licensing Information Products l Licence rather than sale l Distribution licence from content owner –Geographical restrictions –Identifying customer location l Self-certification l IP address l Payment mechanism l Preventing piracy –Embedded information –Digital rights management technology

Encryption and Security Issues l What needs to be secure? –Payment data –Personal data l EU Data protection directive –Confidential information l Encryption technologies –SSL –Proprietary higher grade encryption (e.g. for VPNs) l Export controls l Based on key length

Other infrastructure agreements l Application hosting –E.g. gaming engine –Note data ownership issues l Payment services –E.g. RBS Bankline l Affiliate agreements –Website refers customer to other product/ service providers –Revenue share or commission arrangement