Review: Legal Issues in the Global Information Society
The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is to be held in Tunis in mid November.
This book, by Oceana Publications, was written as background for the conference by several international legal experts.
It looks at topics such as patents, copyright, data protection, technology surveillance, Internet regulation, and contract formation. These topics are looked at from a high level perspective, including the rationale behind such laws and some history. Examples are given of specific laws in various countries and of international treaties. It contains plenty of footnotes for sources of further research.
For example, I learned that the first patent was issued by King Henry VI in 1449 for the manufacture of stained glass. The idea was to slow the importation of stained glass from other countries.
The chapter that discusses international surveillance capabilities over communications is quite sobering.
The book does a good job of exploring the various issues that will be discussed at the summit.
It is also a useful summary for anyone interested in understanding how these issues are dealt with internationally, and what businesses might face when selling outside of their own country.
