Information Technology Law

Citation

Lloyd, I. J. (2017). Information Technology Law (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

Context and Scope

The book has twenty-four chapters in four parts and about 525 pages of text. The publisher describes it as a broad introduction to the relationship between law and information technology, focused mainly on the United Kingdom and the European Union, and aimed at IT law students as well as business and management students and IT and legal professionals. It examines everyday interactions with technology and their effect on privacy and data protection, and the links with intellectual property and criminal proceedings. The parts are Privacy, Anonymity, and Data Protection (Part I, the longest, about 200 pages); Computer-related Crime (Part II); Intellectual Property Issues (Part III); and E-commerce (Part IV).

Part I: Privacy, Anonymity, and Data Protection

Chapters 1–3: Privacy, technology, and surveillance; The emergence of data protection; The scope of data protection

The first chapter looks at how technology affects privacy and at surveillance, including interception of communications and the Investigatory Powers Act. The next two chapters trace how data protection law emerged internationally and in the United Kingdom, from the Data Protection Act 1998 to the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, and define its scope through personal data, sensitive personal data, data controllers and processors, and jurisdiction.

Chapters 4–6: Supervisory agencies; The data protection principles; Individual rights and remedies

These chapters cover the role and powers of supervisory authorities and the enforcement of data protection law, the principles of fair and lawful processing (including consent and the processing of sensitive data), and the rights of data subjects, such as access and rectification, with compensation and other remedies.

Chapters 7–8: Sectoral aspects of data protection; Transborder data flows

Chapter 7 considers data protection in particular sectors, such as the media and electronic communications. Chapter 8 deals with the regulation of transfers of personal data outside the EU, including the Safe Harbor arrangement and its successor, Privacy Shield.

Part II: Computer-related Crime

Chapters 9–10: National and international responses to computer-related crime; Substantive criminal law provisions

The first chapter reviews conventions and EU initiatives, including the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention. The second examines offences against computer data and systems, such as unauthorised access, data interference, denial-of-service attacks and malicious communications.

Chapters 11–13: Computer fraud and forgery; Virtual criminality; Detecting and prosecuting computer crime

Chapter 11 covers computer-related forgery and fraud, including the deception of machines. Chapter 12 turns to internet pornography, child exploitation and the jurisdictional problems of virtual criminality. Chapter 13 returns to interception and communications data and the Investigatory Powers Act as tools for investigation.

Part III: Intellectual Property Issues

Chapters 14–15: Key elements of the patent system; Patents and software

The patent chapters introduce international patent agreements and the requirements for patentability, then ask how patent law applies to software, including infringement, the disputes known as the software patent wars, patent trolls and standard essential patents.

Chapters 16–18: Copyright protection; Copyright in the information society; Protection of databases

Copyright is introduced through its basics, protected works and the development of software copyright, and then followed into the digital setting: user rights, fair dealing, digital rights management and the enforcement of copyright, including blocking orders. A separate chapter covers the traditional protection of databases and the database right.

Chapters 19–21: Design rights; Trade mark and domain-name issues; Internet regulation and domain names

Design right and its legislative development come first. The trade mark chapter looks at the effect of trade marks, domain name hijacking and the treatment of trade marks by search engines. The last chapter of the part deals with internet governance, the role of ICANN and domain name disputes.

Part IV: E-commerce

Chapters 22–24: International and European initiatives in e-commerce; Electronic money and online gambling; Contractual liability for defective software

Chapter 22 covers legal instruments such as the Distance Selling Directive and the Electronic Commerce Directive, with choice of law and alternative dispute resolution. Chapter 23 looks at the regulation of electronic money, virtual currency and peer-to-peer lending, and online gambling. The book closes with liability for defective software, including implied terms and the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Key Concepts

Part I: Privacy, Anonymity, and Data Protection (Chapters 1–8)

• Data protection principles: the rules for fair and lawful processing of personal data, including consent.
• Data controllers and processors: the parties responsible for, and acting on behalf of those responsible for, handling personal data.
• Data subject rights: access to personal data, rectification of inaccurate data and compensation.
• Transborder data flows: the conditions for transferring personal data out of the EU.

Part II: Computer-related Crime (Chapters 9–13)

• Offences against computer data and systems: unauthorised access, data interference and denial of service.
• Virtual criminality: offences committed on the internet, with the associated problems of jurisdiction.
• Interception and communications data: the legislative powers used to detect and prosecute computer crime.

Part III: Intellectual Property Issues (Chapters 14–21)

• Software patents: the question of when software can be patented, with the controversies over patent trolls and standard essential patents.
• Fair dealing and digital rights management: user rights set against technical protection of copyright works.
• Database right: protection for databases beyond copyright.
• Domain names: their relation to trade marks and the bodies that govern them.

Part IV: E-commerce (Chapters 22–24)

• Distance selling and e-commerce directives: the European instruments for online contracts and services.
• Electronic money: the regulation of e-money, virtual currency and peer-to-peer lending.
• Liability for defective software: implied terms and statutory remedies for software quality.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Wide coverage in a single book. Privacy and data protection, computer crime, intellectual property and e-commerce each form a part, so a reader meets the main areas of IT law without moving between several specialist texts.
• Detail within each area. With twenty-four chapters, the book gives separate chapters to topics such as sectoral data protection, transborder data flows, virtual criminality, databases and domain names.
• Context of everyday technology. The publisher frames the subject through familiar activities, such as downloading music, shopping online and sharing personal data, which gives a way into otherwise technical regimes.
• Supporting web resources. The publisher describes an Online Resource Centre with links to key readings, updates to the law since publication and the author's own IT law blog.

Limitations

• Date. The eighth edition appeared in March 2017, and a ninth edition has since been published. Data protection, surveillance and cross-border transfers are areas in which the law has moved considerably, and the chapters on these topics should be checked against current sources.
• Jurisdiction. The focus is on the United Kingdom and the European Union, so the book is less suited to a course on another legal system.
• Breadth over depth in some topics. Intellectual property is covered across eight chapters of a book that also covers privacy, crime and e-commerce. Courses with a heavy IP emphasis will need a specialist text alongside it.

Where It Fits in the Course

Lloyd is the broad, student-oriented textbook of this course. Murray's Information Technology Law: The Law and Society is a comparable textbook, which relates the legal rules for the internet, digital content, personal data and online conduct to wider debates about how technology and society shape each other; it suits readers who want the wider debates as well as the rules. Lloyd is the more direct route to the black-letter content of privacy, computer crime, IP and e-commerce.

For the intellectual property chapters, Jacob, Fisher and Chave's Guidebook to Intellectual Property offers a short account for newcomers, and Bently and others' Intellectual Property Law is the full treatise to turn to when Part III is not enough. Boyle's The Public Domain is a different kind of book, an argument about the history of intellectual property and the role of the public domain, and is best read after Chapters 16–18.

How to Use This Book

The book is for law students and for business, management and IT readers who need an organised account of the legal issues around technology. It does not require technical knowledge, though the chapters on computer crime and intellectual property are easier with some familiarity with how software and networks work.

A practical plan:

• Core: Part I, especially Chapters 2–6, for the structure of data protection law, since it recurs in the other parts. Read Chapter 1 first for the privacy and surveillance background.
• By interest: Part II for criminal law courses, starting with Chapters 9 and 10; Part III for readers who need the IP basics, starting with Chapters 14 and 16; Part IV for commercial and consumer courses.
• Reference: Chapters 7, 8, 12, 20 and 21 can be taken as needed for sector-specific, transfer, content and domain name topics.

Because the law in this field changes quickly, use the Online Resource Centre and recent statutes and case reports to update any chapter before relying on it.