Corien Prins

Anonymity and software agents: An interdisciplinary challenge

Software agents that play a role in E-commerce and E-government applications involving the Internet often contain information about the identity of their human user such as credit cards and bank accounts. This paper discusses whether this is necessary: whether human users and software agents are allowed to be anonymous under the relevant legal regimes and whether an adequate interaction and balance between law and anonymity can be realised from both the perspective of Computer Systems and the perspective of Law.

Personalisation and its Influence on Identities, Behaviour and Social Values

New ICTs support new ways of tailoring services to the individual needs and desires of customers. Increasingly, what is called personalisation of services is implemented particularly in Internet-based e-commerce applications but other kinds of technologies and services, such as location-based services, RFID, smartcards and biometrics are expected to follow closely and offer even better opportunities for personalised services. The growing popularity of personalisation requires an exploration of the broader and fundamental implications of this phenomenon. Issues related to the categorisation of people, the creation of identities, the (re)structuring of behaviour and the shaping of the overall movement of information and expression within society need consideration when implementing such techniques in organisational (e.g., e-Government) and business processes. More specifically, this chapter deals with privacy, transparency and the quality of personalisation processes, as well as inclusion, exclusion and control. It is argued that the phenomenon of personalisation must be deliberated in light of the broader developments in the area of ubiquitous computing.

Making our body identify for us: Legal implications of biometric technologies

Abstract This article intends to set down some first tentative steps towards a better insight into the legal consequences of, as well as conditions for, the application of biometric technologies.1 After providing a brief description of the techniques involved and of the different biometric methods used, mention will be made of a few of the benefits of the technology as well as applications thereof. Subsequently, issues related to fundamental rights, legal requirements for security measures and the status of proofs (e.g., in trials) are explored. The article is concluded with some recommendations and policy options.

Digital Tools: Risks and Opportunities for Victims: Explorations in E-victimology

Providing Google or any of the other search engines the search term e-victimology does not offer many hits – yet. Anyone who looks for true technology-amplified action by victim support organizations quickly learns that strategic use of digital tools is far from a common scenario. Of course, several interesting projects – one of them being Courtwise, an initiative of the Australian New South Wales Government1 – have been launched. But we are still far away from a world in which the strategies employed by victim support organizations are partly determined by the opportunities new digital tools offer. In fact, there has been little serious attempt to conceptualize the effect of new technologies on victims’ needs and subsequently the impact on the work of victim support organizations.

Law-abiding and integrity on the internet: a case for agents

Abstract Software agents extend the current, information-based Internet to include autonomous mobile processing. In most countries such processes, i.e., software agents are, however, without an explicit legal status. Many of the legal implications of their actions (e.g., gathering information, negotiating terms, performing transactions) are not well understood. One important characteristic of mobile software agents is that they roam the Internet: they often run on agent platforms of others. There often is no pre-existing relation between the “owner” of a running agent’s process and the owner of the agent platform on which an agent process runs. When conflicts arise, the position of the agent platform administrator is not clear: is he or she allowed to slow down the process or possibly remove it from the system? Can the interests of the user of the agent be protected? This article explores legal and technical perspectives in protecting the integrity and availability of software agents and agent platforms.

Digital rights management in information publishing

In this article, we present a solution to digital rights management (DRM) for electronic publishing and document management services provided by a third‐party application service provider (ASP). We identify legal requirements that service providers have to guarantee with respect to DRM. We elaborate on related technological requirements and implement specific DRM service components compliant with the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) standard. Moreover, we show how digital rights of document content can be specified and subsequently enforced using ODRL. We conclude by discussing legal implications of technological innovation—for example, the conflicts that may arise between digital rights enforcement and privacy protection measures, and how it is possible to resolve them.

Digital Anonymity on the Internet

This article sets out the most important conclusions of the first stage of a study into the dimensions of digital anonymity. It is intended to set out the problem, make people aware of the intricacies of the problem and thus stimulate the debate on useful legal structures for anonymity. The article focuses on Holland’s private law dimensions, addressing situations where consumers want to purchase anonymously on the Internet.

Digital Anonymity on the InternetDIGITAL ANONYMITY ON THE INTERNET: New rules for anonymous electronic transactions?

This article sets out the most important conclusions of the first stage of a study into the dimensions of digital anonymity. It is intended to set out the problem, make people aware of the intricacies of the problem and thus stimulate the debate on useful legal structures for anonymity. The article focuses on Holland’s private law dimensions, addressing situations where consumers want to purchase anonymously on the Internet.

Unreliable information on the internet : a challenging dilemma for the law

This paper examines what role the law can and should play with regard to unreliable information available on fast communication networks, such as the Internet. Users of electronic information find it increasingly difficult to assess its reliability. The traditional structures for assessing reliability are lacking or function inadequately. Clear social norms have not yet been developed. As regards the law, traditionally liability law is the first legal guard against undesirable societal developments. We conclude however, that liability law is an inadequate remedy for unreliable information. Self‐regulatory initiatives such as trust mark seals for websites providing reliable information offer a more promising perspective, although these also have their limitations, especially in the sphere of enforcement and legitimacy. In this paper, self‐regulation is nonetheless hailed as an important instrument because it provides an indispensable test‐bed for more concrete legal norms derived from reliability criteria ...

PUBLIC ICT POLICY: INTERNATIONALIZATION AND ICT LAW: THE POSITION OF THE UK, GERMANY, FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES

Abstract The information society is essentially an international society. This challenges the law, which is still to a large extent nationally-based. The prime question that thus arises is: how can and should governments regulate information and communications technologies (ICT) and the Internet, given the fundamental influence of internationalization? The Center for Law, Public Administration and Informatization of Tilburg University (The Netherlands) researched the points of view on this of the governments of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, focusing on a number of general themes and specific issues in private and criminal law. The research was commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Justice to support their memorandum Internationalization and the law in the information society, presented to the Dutch Parliament in May 2000. The research took place from January through April 2000 by analysing the states’ major ICT policy papers and laws and by an international workshop held in Amsterdam. The outcome suggests that, if ICT law wants to grow up, governments should structurally incorporate the perspective of internationalization and jurisdiction in all policy-making in the area of ICT law. 3 This article discusses the key issues that were addressed in the above-mentioned research and presents the main conclusions that were drawn.