IP: Data Protection Law and Online Services: Regulatory Responses

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

From: "Joel R. Reidenberg" <reidenberg () sprynet com>
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>

Thought IPers would be interested to learn that the European Commission has
just released a study I wrote earlier this year with Paul Schwartz for
DGXV.  Copies of the study "Data protection law and Online Services:
Regulatory Responses" can be downloaded from DGXV's web site

<http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg15/en/media/dataprot/studies/regul.htm>

Our comparative law study identifies critical issues under European data
protection laws for the development of European on-line services (e.g.
substantive scope of dp law, jurisdictional scope related to registration
and supervision; transparency obligations, profiling and sensitive data
rules, and security policies).  At the request of the European Commission,
we examined the laws of Belgium, France, Germany and the UK. We analyzed
the impact of the EU Directive on national law and concluded that
significant divergences in Member State laws are likely to persist even
after the transposition of the Directive.

We recommended the use of the Directive's Article 27 procedure for the EU
to encourage and adopt technical solutions in order to bridge the legal
differences and minimize the disruptive effects of divergent rules.  Our
analysis argued that technical codes and solutions should be treated as
"codes of conduct" under Article 27.  This would then make technical codes
and solutions eligible for approval from the Working Party of EU Data
Protection Commissioners as measures complying with the Directive's
standards.

Regards.

JRR


***************************************************************
Joel R. Reidenberg
Professor of Law
Director, Graduate Program Academic Affairs
Fordham University School of Law
140 West 62nd Street
New York, N.Y.  10023
Tel: 212-636-6843
Fax: 212-636-6899

Email: <reidenberg () sprynet com>
Web: <http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/reidenberg>
**************************************************************