Thomas Dreier

Service robotics: do you know your new companion? Framing an interdisciplinary technology assessment

Service-Robotic—mainly defined as “non-industrial robotics”—is identified as the next economical success story to be expected after robots have been ubiquitously implemented into industrial production lines. Under the heading of service-robotic, we found a widespread area of applications reaching from robotics in agriculture and in the public transportation system to service robots applied in private homes. We propose for our interdisciplinary perspective of technology assessment to take the human user/worker as common focus. In some cases, the user/worker is the effective subject acting by means of and in cooperation with a service robot; in other cases, the user/worker might become a pure object of the respective robotic system, for example, as a patient in a hospital. In this paper, we present a comprehensive interdisciplinary framework, which allows us to scrutinize some of the most relevant applications of service robotics; we propose to combine technical, economical, legal, philosophical/ethical, and psychological perspectives in order to design a thorough and comprehensive expert-based technology assessment. This allows us to understand the potentials as well as the limits and even the threats connected with the ongoing and the planned implementation of service robots into human lifeworld—particularly of those technical systems displaying increasing grades of autonomy.

Legal aspects of service robotics

The emergent use of service robots in more and more areas of social life raises a number of legal issues which have to be addressed in order to apply and adapt the existing legal framework to this new technology. The article provides an overview of law as a means to regulate and govern technology and discusses fundamental issues of the relationship between law and technology. It then goes on to address a number of relevant problems in the field of service robotics. In particular, these issues include the organization of administrative control and the legal liability regime which applies to service robots. Also, the issue of autonomy of service robots is discussed, which cannot easily be answered under the existing, human-centered legal regime.ZusammenfassungDer zunehmende Einsatz von Service-Robotern in immer mehr Bereichen des gesellschaftlichen Lebens wirft eine Reihe rechtlicher Fragen auf, die es bei der Anwendung des bestehenden Rechtsrahmens auf diese neue Technologie zu beantworten gilt. Der Artikel gibt einen Überblick über das Recht als ein Instrument zur Technikregulierung und erörtert grundsätzliche Probleme des Verhältnisses von Technik und Recht. Nachfolgend wird eine Reihe rechtlicher Fragestellungen auf dem Gebiet der Serviceroboter angesprochen. Dazu zählen insbesondere die Organisation und Ausübung einer verwaltungsrechtlichen Kontrolle wie auch Fragen der Haftung von bzw. für den Einsatz von Service-Robotern. Schließlich wird auch das Problem des rechtlichen Umgangs mit der Autonomie von Service-Robotern angesprochen, das sich im geltenden, auf den Menschen ausgerichteten Recht nicht ohne weiteres lösen lässt.

Digital copyright and value added information services

Digital information technologies have led to a dramatic change in the production, reproduction and dissemination of information products. The legal framework for this change is largely provided by copyright. However it is still rather uncertain how copyright should react to the technological and corresponding economic changes. Today, due to the challenges brought forth by digital and networked information technologies, we see a “crisis” of the finely tuned copyright system. Internationally, we are in the midst of adjusting the copyright system to its future tasks. Within the next weeks the EU-Directive on Copyright in the Information Society will be implemented into the German Copyright Law. However, still many issues remain unresolved. In view of the rapidly growing availability of information, agents and navigators gain importance, which search for and open up access to the information available. Furthermore, digital information technologies facilitate the supply of new information services which are based on existing information products. An added-value may consist in a follow-on development or simply in the selection or combination of pre-existing information according to the users individual information needs. Should such value-added information services and products be regarded as piracy or permitted as added value? It is still not clear to what extent copyright will allow such value-added services in a digital environment. Difficulties exist not only with regard to the application of new legal rules, but also with regard to the question how new forms of digital exploitation of works are subject to copyright.

Informationsrecht@KIT - 15 Jahre Zentrum für Angewandte Rechtswissenschaft

Welchen Beitrag vermag das Informationsrecht fur Forscher, Techniker und Ingenieure zu leisten? Wie konnen Recht und Informationstechnik fruchtbar zusammenwirken? Ist Recht zwangslaufig ein Hindernis fur eine innovationsgetriebene Technikforschung? Diese Fragestellungen sind Gegenstand des Zentrums fur Angewandte Rechtswissenschaft (ZAR) am Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie (KIT). Der Tagungsband zum 15-jahrigen Bestehen des ZAR sucht auf diese Fragestellungen einige Antworten zu geben.

Bestandsaufnahme Die Lage in Deutschland

Ich freue mich, bei Ihnen zu sein, da ich vor mehr als zehn Jahren dort gearbeitet habe, wo heute Christophe Geiger tatig ist, nur dass ich nicht auf die Idee gekommen bin, eine Vortragsreihe wie die heute beginnende aufzubauen und zu oreanisieren.

Information Management and Market Engineering. Vol. II

The research program �Information Management and Market Engineering� focuses on the analysis and the design of electronic markets. Taking a holistic view of the conceptualization and realization of solutions, the research integrates the disciplines business administration, economics, computer science, and law. Topics of interest range from the implementation, quality assurance, and further development of electronic markets to their integration into business processes, innovative business models, and legal frameworks.

Law and information technology—An uneasy marriage, or getting along with each other?

Abstract The paper explores the links between law and technological development, the different paces of changes in each and the resulting gaps between them. In the first part, it sketches a complex model of the relationship between law and technology by reference to information technology. In the second part, it examines the structural effects of information technology on the legal rules that aim to regulate this area. The paper concludes by calling for more work towards establishing a coherent theory of information law.

Protection of Digital Content and DRM Technologies in German Copyright

Today, due to the challenges brought forth by digital and networked information technologies, we see a “crisis” of the finely tuned copyright system as we know it. Internationally, we are in the midst of adjusting the copyright sytem to its future tasks. Within the next weeks the EU–Directive on Copyright in the Information Society will be implemented into the German Copyright Law. However, still many issues remain unresolved. The proper scope of the exception clauses as laid down in §§ 45 et seqs. of the German Copyright Act and, in particular, the private use exception of § 53, is still subject to discussion. This question interrelates with the upcoming implementation of technological protection measures (TPM) and digital rights management systems (DRM). For now, the legislature has granted strong legal protection for TPM that might eventually undermine the underlying values of the statutory exception clauses. A look back to the initial rationals of our copyright system might help to find a proper balance of interests for the future.Today, due to the challenges brought forth by digital and networked information technologies, we see a “crisis” of the finely tuned copyright system as we know it. Internationally, we are in the midst of adjusting the copyright system to its future tasks. Within the next weeks the EU-Directive on Copyright in the Information Society will be implemented into the German Copyright Law. However, still many issues remain unresolved. The proper scope of the exception clauses as laid down in §§45 et seqs. of the German Copyright Act and, in particular, the private use exception of §53, is still subject to discussion. This question interrelates with the upcoming implementation of technological protection measures (TPM) and digital rights management systems (DRM). For now, the legislature has granted strong legal protection for TPM that might eventually undermine the underlying values of the statutory exception clauses. A look back to the initial rationals of our copyright system might help to find a proper balance of interests for the future.

The legal framework for access to STI

The intervention will focus on the legal framework for access to scientific and technical information. It will outline the mechanism and function of copyright in original text information and the legal protection granted to the collection of facts, data and other scientific materials in electronic databases. An important issue in this regard is the relationship between technical protection measures (TPM) and digital rights management systems (DRMs) and the boundaries of exclusive protection as well as between techno-legal protection and economic marketing models. It will be argued that the current problems are much less the result of an ever-increasing legal protection than of an information policy which is largely influenced by technology and economic concers of global players. Indeed, copyright should neither be held responsible for, nor burdened with, unsolved issues of information policy.