New proposed UK defamation laws recommend that web hosts (SaaS suppliers) and ISPs should be allowed to keep allegedly defamatory comments online, as long as the author of the comment is identified and a notice of complaint is published next to the comment.
Continue readingMonth: February 2012
SaaS Agreements – Software – Copyright Protection
The Advocate General ruled that the functionalities of software are simply “the service which the user expects” from the computer programme. For example, when using software to book an airline ticket the functionalities of the booking process will be the same regardless of which company’s software you use. Such services cannot be protected by copyright. However, what can be protected by copyright, is the means by which the functionalities are achieved as this reflects the author’s own intellectual creation. Protection will depend upon the degree of originality in the writing of the software.
Continue readingSaaS Agreements – Data Protection – Data Stored in the USA
SaaS suppliers who use data centres physically located in the USA to store or process data should be aware of a recent US Court of Appeals ruling that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) – an American law – protects the data of non-USA citizens when their data is stored on servers in the USA.
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