Bilateral and multilateral trade agreements are strange beasts. They are usually drafted to get two countries or regions to open up their markets, therefore contain all sorts of harmonising provisions which will bring the contracting parties’ laws closer to one another in order to ease trade. One of the topics Read more
During the early years of the decade, the topic of the digital divide received more coverage than it does now. As the Internet took off in Western developed nations, there was a deep preoccupation that developing countries would be left behind in the digital environment, condemning these economies to an Read more
Press gag orders in the UK have a deservedly bad reputation, they are some of the worst examples of repression of freedom of speech through draconian legal measures. While one could argue that they may be justified in some cases with regards to human rights and privacy, they are currently Read more
Although most of the topics dealt with in this blog tend to be political in nature (let’s face it, law is usually a highly political topic in itself), I try to stay away from some specifically political issues, mostly because I think that there are people making more informed commentary Read more
Last night something interesting happened online, a small incident that I think illustrates the problems of instant communications quite well. Geek blog Mashable broke the news that telecomms giant AT&T was filtering access to imageboard 4chan. For those unfamiliar with this site, 4chan is a forum dedicated to the exchange Read more
The adoption of the French version of three-strikes legislation has been filled with more plot twists than a Brazilian soap opera. First it got rejected by Parliament, then it passed, and now the French constitutional court has rejected it on the grounds that access to the Internet is a human Read more
Thank goodness for the Swedish Pirate Party. In the middle of a depressing political landscape across Europe that has seen far-right parties make some significant headways, the always-progressive Swedes have given one of their 18 European Parliament seats to the defenders of all things piratical. The Pirate Party advocates the Read more
The BBC reports that Iran has blocked access to Facebook. According to them, this has been done in order to make sure that followers of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi cannot meet online and gather more support. Does anyone remember our early dreams of a free internet? The Web Read more
Anyone who studies technology knows about the tiered nature of its adoption. Whenever a new technology or application is invented, you get the early adopters, the trend-setters, the cool-hunters; these are people who are usually clued into new applications and have a knack of joining winning technologies at the very Read more
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is a worthy project to combat the digital divide (if somebody utters the word “bridge” I will scream). The project has managed to design $100 USD laptops, which is considered affordable enough to provide children in developing countries and remote rural communities with their first Read more