JISC Legal : Hosting Liability

This guidance is designed to help institutions deal with consent management when sharing personal data across and between institutions and external service providers.

JISC Legal is pleased to present our free Cloud Computing and the Law toolkit for FE and HE professionals. 

In this guide, you’ll find summaries of the key legal considerations of using Facebook in an FE and HE context.

An up-to-date, accessible guide for senior managers on ICT law within FE and HE.

Our free Recording Lectures and Screencasts webcast is now available in captioned, bite-sized segments. Presented as a lively panel discussion, this is a practical, relevant guide to the legal, technical and accessibility issues involved in recording lectures and screencasts.

This paper considers the legal issues which arise in relation to the taking of or possession of images (still and moving) of children for use in an Open Education Resource. 

This guidance document examines the Digital Economy Act 2010 and its implications for universities and colleges in the UK.

Information on and examples of acceptable and unacceptable use of computer systems as well as practical tips on dealing with computer crime.

A checklist of questions for institutions to consider when updating or framing an e-safety policy.

This webcast was designed to assist institutions in meeting their legal duties and inspection needs in relation to safeguarding and e-security.

This webcast tackles the legal risks of Web 2.0 technologies and suggests how they can be mitigated. 

An examination into the extent to which FE or HE institutions are responsible for content which is made available on their computer systems. 

Essentials guide for FE and HE on ISP liability for online content.

This overview paper briefly clarifies the current situation with regard to retention of communications traffic data by certain UK organisations.

Webcast providing practical guidance on legally accessing user email accounts, computer hard drive or network storage. 

This paper assesses the potential  legal risks involved in project management.

Legal issues which may affect the development and use of particular ePortfolio systems.

Overview of data retention practices, and implications in FE and HE following the EU data retention directive 2006/24/EC.

The law has changed that applies to how institutions must use cookies.

There are two legal issues here, the first concerns data protection, and the second concerns your duty of care to employees.

Under the Data Protection Act 1988 (DPA)  a college or university must ensure that the personal data relating to its staff, students and others remains secure including protecting such data from accidental loss (the seventh data protection principle)...  (cont'd)

The Climate Change Act 2008 requires colleges and universities, directly or indirectly, to take action to reduce carbon emissions in order to contribute to the national targets for carbon reduction... (cont'd)

Copyright in a work is not infringed by lending by an educational establishment. However you may find that a restriction ... (cont)

We are pleased to announce the launch of JISC Legal Plus - a new staff development service bringing JISC Legal's expertise to your institution at competitive prices...  (cont'd)

Firstly it is necessary to try and distinguish between emails which contain information which are business records and emails which are just  ... (cont)

This is a decision for the institution to make. There have certainly been various news articles highlighting privacy and data protection concerns related to Facebook, and similar issues apply to other external social networking sites ... (cont)

 In short where the institution does not own the copyright in materials and where the copyright period has not expired, permission, a licence or ... (cont)

 Email disclaimers are designed as an attempt to limit the sender's liability for the content of a message. However, their ability to prevent  ... (cont)

Belief that copyright permission has been granted is no defence to infringement of copyright if no valid permission was, in fact, given.

The law has changed that applies to how institutions must use cookies.

The High Court states that even where private individuals are expressing their own views online the requirements of lawful processing in the DPA can apply.

Came into force on 31 December 2009.   

(NLA) v Meltwater - In the particular circumstances of commercial news headlines and their monitoring and copying for commercial gain much of the content will attract copyright protection.

Vince Cable has announced that controversial plans to force ISPs to block websites that host copyright infringing material are to be dumped. 

Recommendations made by the Hargreaves review of intellectual property and growth have been accepted by the Government.

The Climate Change Act 2008 requires colleges and universities, directly or indirectly, to take action to reduce carbon emissions in order to contribute to the national targets for carbon reduction... (cont'd)

A data controller is able to anonymise originally-personal data to make it free of data protection law constraints.

Fines of up to £500,000 for the most serious incidents of sending unwanted emails.

The Budget supporting papers have indicated various proposed actions including a new Communications Act and proposals relating to intellectual property.

The draft Bill aims to strike the right balance between protection of freedom of speech and protection of reputation and includes new statutory defences and is open for consultation until 10 June 2011.

New law gives individuals more control over what information organisations can store on their computer.

The EU has taken a step towards common rules for cracking down on those who sexually abuse children and post images of the abuse on the internet.

This bill seeks to amend current defamation legislation and is progressing through Parliament. The main focus of the bill is to make sure that defamation legislation is fit for modern times.

A Statutory Instrument has been set out on costs sharing for rights holders and ISPs in implementing the Digital Economy Act. 

The High Court recently decided, in relation to copyright law, that the term ‘making available’ to the public, that the 'making available' happens where the servers send the files, rather than where received.

ACAS guide offers practical tips on the impact of social networking on discipline and grievances, bullying, defamation, data protection and privacy.

The European Commission has launched a consultation on cloud computing.  This will feed into the European cloud computing strategy due to be presented in 2012.

A dedicated 'one stop shop' has been produced, telling the public about their FOI rights, and a step by step guide on how to use them.

This toolkit aims to guide information professionals in assessing cloud computing services for information use and storage, including development of a cloud computing strategy.

Janet Guidelines to assist universities and colleges in handling indecent images of children found on their information systems.

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has published its report ‘Security and Resilience in Governmental Clouds’ which assesses the operational, legal, and security requirements of cloud computing.

This project will provide IPR and licensing support for JISC/HEA funded OER Phase 2 projects with particular emphasis on the use of Creative Commons Licences.

A resource from the Higher Education Academy English Subject Centre aimed at those developing courses which suggests that it is necessary to consider copyright clearance from the start.

Guidance for public sector organisationsaims to make current equality law more consistent, clearer and easier to follow in order to make society fairer.

Information on and examples of acceptable and unacceptable use of computer systems as well as practical tips on dealing with computer crime.

The EDUCAUSE Information Resources Library includes a collection of policies from the education sector. It includes example policies on acceptable use, copyright, data retention, e-mail, licensing, security and general use of the web.
http://www.educause.edu/browse/647.

This report has been extracted from BitLaw - an Internet resource on technology law, patent, copyright, trademark, and Internet legal issues.  
BitLaw was created by Daniel A. Tysver, a partner with the intellectual property law firm of Beck & Tysver.
http://www.bitlaw.com/internet/isp.html.

Full text of an article by Michael L. Siegel, published in the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology [4 Va. J.L. & Tech.7 (Fall 1999)].
http://www.vjolt.net/vol4/issue/v4i2a7-siegel.html.

Full text article by D. Lichtman and E.Posner of the University Of Chicago Law School, written July 2004.
http://papers.ssrn.com/soL3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=573502.

A hypothetical case of ISP liability produced by the Harvard Law School.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/ISP/overview.html.

A JISC Legal paper written by Gavin Sutter June 2003, it is available here - http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/publications/thirdpartycontent.htm.

The resources on this webpage provide links to information on liability for hosting institutions.  They are available on external websites.

This DTI consultation investigating proposals to extend the limitation of liability allowed to hyperlinkers, location tool services and content aggregators focuses on Articles 12-14 of the Electronic Commerce Directive. It was published in December 2006 and is available on the BERR website at: http://www.berr.gov.uk/consultations/page13985.html.

If you are looking for an Internet and E-mail Policy then the guides on the OUT-LAW website are a useful starting point . A user login is required and registration is free at - http://www.out-law.com/page-2.