Thesis (LLM)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Internet is coming more and more into focus of national and international legislation. Especially with regard to copyright law, the rapid growth of the Internet, its global character, its novel technical applications and its private and commercial use by millions of people makes the control over a work complicated and raises copyright problems all over the world. Present legislation is therefore challenged to avoid gaps in the law. Considering the rapid growth of online providers and users in South Africa, it is likely that copyright disputes with regard to the Internet will evolve here soon. In this dissertation, the "world" of the Internet and its lawfulness with regard to existing South African copyright law will be examined. The examination tries to establish whether South African copyright law is able to cope with the present Internet problems and whether it leads to reasonable results. The first chapter of this dissertation will give an overview of the basic principles of the Internet, including the history, development and function of the Internet. Furthermore the changing aspects by means of diqital technology will be discussed. Because the global character of the Internet lead to "international" infringements, governments are considering the prospect of reaching international accord on the protection of intellectual property in the digital era. In chapter two, the present international harmonisation of copyright law will be introduced. Especially the quick adoption of the World Intellectual Property Organisation Treaties in December 1996 demonstrated that an international realisation for a call for action is existing. In chapter three, the application of South African copyright law with regard to the Internet will be discussed. First, it will be examined if a digital work on the Internet is protected in the same way as a "traditional" work. Second, the various rights of the copyright holder are discussed in connection with the use of a work on the Internet. Third, the potential application of the exclusive rights of the copyright holder to various actions on the Internet, such as caching, Web linking and operating an online service will be discussed. The Internet is a worldwide entity, and, as such, copyright infringement on this system is an international problem. The scenario of global, simultaneous exploitation of works on the Internet conflicts sharply with the current system of international copyright protection, which is firmly based on national copyright laws with territorial effects. Section four provides therefore an overview of the applicable law on an international net and analyses the necessity and borders of protection. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nasionale en internasionale wetgewing fokus in In toenemende mate op die Internet. Die versnelde groei van die Internet, sy wêreldkarakter, sy nuwe tegnologiese aanwendings en sy private en kommersiële gebruik deur miljoene mense maak beheer oor In werk baie gekompliseerd en skep veral outeursregprobleme regoor die wêreld. Wetgewing soos dit tans is, word dus uitgedaag om die leemtes in die reg te ondervang. Gegewe die vinnige groei van gekoppelde verskaffers en gebruikers in Suid-Afrika, is dit waarskynlik dat - outeursreggeskille met betrekking tot die Internet binnekort ook hier gaan ontwikkel. In hierdie verhandeling gaan die "wêreld" van die Internet en sy wettigheid onder bestaande Suid-Afrikaanse outeursregwetgewing ondersoek word. In die ondersoek word gepoog om vas te stelof Suid-Afrikaanse outeursregwetgewing geskik is om die Internetprobieme wat tans bestaan te hanteer en of dit lei tot aanvaarbare resultate. Die eerste hoofstuk van die verhandeling sal In oorsig gee van die basiese beginsels van die Internet, insluitende die geskiedenis, ontwikkeling en funksie van die Internet. Verder sal die veranderende aspekte as gevolg van digitale tegnologie bespreek word. Die wêreldkarakter van die Internet gee aanleiding tot "internasionale" inbreukmakings en om hierdie rede oorweeg regerings die moontlikheid van internasionale ooreenkomste oor die beskerming van intellektuele eiendom in die digitale era. In hoofstuk twee word die bestaande internasionale harmonisering van outeursreg bespreek. Veral die vinnige aanname van die World Intellectual Property Organisation se verdrae in Desember 1996, illustreer dat daar In internasionale bewustheid is dat iets in die verband gedoen moet word. In die derde hoofstuk word die aanwending van die Suid-Afrikaanse outeursreg met betrekking tot die Internet bespreek. Eerstens word ondersoek of a digitale werk op die Internet op dieselfde wyse as 'n "tradisionele" werk beskerm kan word. Tweedens word die verskillende regte van die outeursreghebbende in verband met die gebruik van 'n werk op die Internet, bespreek. Derdens word die potensiële aanwending van die eksklusiewe regte van die outeursreghebbende op verskillende aksies op die Internet, soos byvoorbeeld kasberging, web koppeling en die werking van 'n gekoppelde diens, bespreek. Die Internet is 'n wêreldwye verskynsel en sodanig is outeursreginbreukmaking op hierdie stelsel 'n internasionale probleem. Die scenario van 'n wêreldwye, gelyktydige uitbuiting van werke op die Internet is in skerp konflik met die huidige stelsel van internasionale outeursregbeskerming wat stewig gegrond is op nasionale wetgewing met territoriale werking. Hoofstuk vier bied daarom 'n oorsig oor die toepaslike reg op 'n internasionale netwerk en analiseer die nodigheid en ook grense van beskerming.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Johannesburg, 2017 / This research investigates real names, pseudonyms, and anonymity online. From its small beginning as a research tool, the internet has grown radically and been increasingly incorporated into people’s daily lives. Simultaneously, as the internet has grown and changed, so have its uses, and perceptions of the naming practices used on it. Attitudes towards acceptable name use online have changed over time. Social networking sites have had a strong influence on name usage policies. This research examines how these attitudes have changed, and the implications of real names, pseudonyms and anonymity for behaviour on the internet and privacy. The radically disembodied nature of online communication lends itself to disinhibition, which in turn has resulted in online communications’ reputation for trolls and abusers. Contrary to the common assumption that the use of real names offline indicates the legitimacy of using real names online, online and offline communications are radically different. Online communications have very different considerations regarding privacy, identity theft, the digital footprint, and collapsed context, many of which are not present in offline communications. This paper examines naming policies and site structure through two case studies. The first case focuses on News24 and the Daily Maverick, both of which are South African news sites. Due to the need for rational and polite discourse, these implemented real name policies in order to enforce good behaviour amongst their users. In both cases, the real name policies failed. The second case study is that of 4chan, the American image board site. 4chan does not require any login process, and its users are typically anonymous. Despite being notorious for trolls, illegal content, and its image board /b/, the site’s architecture, along with the way that posts are created and then kept alive, mean that the site can be effective at moderating the kinds of content that it deems appropriate for each of its boards. Despite the contrasting nature and purposes of the news sites and 4chan, there are lessons to be learnt from the failure of real name policies, and the architecture and set up of sites which can be used to enforce particular behaviours. Furthermore, despite the ephemeral and shifting nature of 4chan, identity and a sense of belonging remain important to its users, hinting at the importance of a sense of identity to site members and the role of this identity in ensuring that users adhere to the norms. / XL2018

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

Internet privacy lacks transparency, choice, quantifiability, and accountability, especially, as the deployment of machine learning technologies becomes mainstream. However, these technologies can be both privacy-invasive as well as privacy-protective. This dissertation advances the thesis that machine learning can be used for purposes of improving Internet privacy. Starting with a case study that shows how the potential of a social network to learn ethnicity and gender of its users from geotags can be estimated, various strands of machine learning technologies to further privacy are explored. While the quantification of privacy is the subject of well-known privacy metrics, such as k-anonymity or differential privacy, I discuss how some of those metrics can be leveraged in tandem with machine learning algorithms for purposes of quantifying the privacy-invasiveness of data collection practices. Further, I demonstrate how the current notice-and-choice paradigm can be realized by automatic machine learning privacy policy analysis. The implemented system notifies users efficiently and accurately on applicable data practices. Further, by analyzing software data flows users are enabled to compare actual to described data practices and regulators can enforce those at scale. The emerging cross-device tracking practices of ad networks, analytics companies, and others can be supplemented by machine learning technologies as well to notify users of privacy practices across devices and give them the choice they are entitled to by law. Ultimately, cross-device tracking is a harbinger of the emerging Internet of Things, for which I envision intelligent personal assistants that help users navigating through the increasing complexity of privacy notices and choices.

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

M. Tech. Business Information Systems Tshwane University of Technology 2011. / This is a South African case in which some kind of justified divergence on the use of cyber-digital copyright protected material of the author referred to as 'fair-use' exists. What exactly is it and to what extent fair-use should be considered fair according to the 'fair-use doctrine'? What may be the concomitant permissibility between cyber-law of copyright protection and fair-use defence? Is it treated on the basis of take-it-or-leave-it or is it a win-win situation? What does our law say about this? In order to answer these questions, this study focused on the effect of cyber-law of copyright on South African academic and research institutions. The study covered topics that include how cyber-law of copyrights has changed access to works. It will also indicate what the effect of legislation is (or the lack thereof) on fair-use vis-à-vis the copyright protection, all of these being exposed to management of cyber-copyrights at the said institutions. Apart from a short synopsis on the conflict, de minimis copying (copying small) and substantial taking, it finally, also reflects, based on this theory, the fundamental conflict theme as envisaged and propagated between both the copyrights and fair-use contradistinction. In order to realize all these, the research will also look into ways of circumventing the possibility of infringement by not only extensively examining, through hypothetical scenario, cyber-law of copyrights protection, but also examining the fair-use defence. Empirical research in the faculty of Information and Communication Technology of Universities of Technology has also been conducted. The Study thus concludes by illuminating that as the IS researchers fare with the impression that copyrights law is, to some extent, only limited to printed and not digital information, the IS researchers, as are not legal experts, need some form of legal orientation on the interpretation of copyrights law in order to promote IS scholarship.

This thesis deals with the way in which copyright law is changing in the digital environment and the mechanisms which are facilitating this change. It deals with these issues by analysing the mechanisms of this change, specifically Digital Rights Management (DRM)Systems and anti-circumvention legislation, and the impact which this change is having on the rights of copyright users. The purpose of copyright is to provide an incentive to authors to continue creating while simultaneously providing a public good in allowing the public to use those creations in certain ways. Copyright achieves this purpose by granting both the author and user certain rights. The author is given a limited monopoly over their work in exchange for allowing this work to enter the public sphere and ensuring that users of that work can utilise that work in certain limited ways. The success of copyright thus rests on maintaining the balance between the rights of these parties. The rise of digital technology has created a situation in which copyright content can be easily copied by any party with a Personal Computer and disseminated around the globe instantly via the Internet. In response to these dangers, copyright owners are making use of DRM systems to protect content. DRM systems include various measures of control within its scope. Theses systems allow for copyright owners to control both access and use of content by copyright users. DRM Systems are not foolproof measures of protection however. Technologically sophisticated users are able to circumvent these protection measures. Thus, in order to protect DRM Systems from circumvention, anti-circumvention legislation has been proposed through international treaties and adopted in many countries. The combined effect of these protection measures are open to abuse by copyright owners and serve to curtail the limited rights of copyright users. The end result of this is that the balance which copyright law was created to maintain is disrupted and copyright law no longer fulfils its purpose. This thesis undertakes an analysis of these issues with reference to how these issues affect copyright users in developing countries. This is done with particular reference to possible approaches to this issue in South Africa as South Africa is a signatory to these anti-circumvention treaties.

Society’s progression through the digital streaming age has created a music licensing landscape of grave concern to all stakeholders in the industry. These drastic changes have occurred under an outdated legal framework. This paper will recommend a comprehensive reform to our copyright law to uphold the intentions of copyright in the modern, digital age of today. By looking at the history of copyright and its evolution, one can assess how Congress has been tasked with establishing a fair market value for music by promoting the public interest and fairly compensating copyright owners. This will lead to an evaluation and comparison of those methods used to determine fair market value for creative works that will be the basis of the recommendation used to modernize copyright law. This recommendation will comprehensively provide for equitable treatment for all parties in the streaming age through its totality, additional reforms, and alternative ideas. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-09-26T10:04:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ricardo Vieira de Souza.pdf: 1123440 bytes, checksum: e5ceefcb485691ee0e19257f666d7604 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-26T10:04:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ricardo Vieira de Souza.pdf: 1123440 bytes, checksum: e5ceefcb485691ee0e19257f666d7604 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-24 / This work is based on the concern about the practice of illicit at the transnational level facilitated by the incessant and always renewed improvement of communication through the world wide web. If on the one hand, the internet, an indisputable product of this network, has favored the connection between people from different parts of the world, on the other hand, has brought cyber-crime to the forefront, which at the same time challenges the establishment of a criminal guardianship for cyberspace in impunity. This is due to the phenomenon of globalization, which has shortened distances in the face of technological and social advances, and the consequences of criminal law. The present research sought to justify how it is possible before the classical concepts of sovereignty that a state effectively combats transnational cyber crime. For that, points were developed as to how the classic concept of sovereignty is found; the characteristics of cyberspace; and the concepts of jurisdiction and criminal jurisdiction. Thus, a dogmatic criminal and procedural criminal analysis will be carried out if it is possible to establish a transnational criminal jurisdiction as a way of regulating cyberspace / Este trabalho parte da preocupação com a prática de ilícitos em nível transnacional facilitada pelo aprimoramento incessante e sempre renovado da comunicação através da rede mundial de computadores. Se de um lado, a internet, produto indiscutível dessa rede, favoreceu a conexão entre as pessoas de diversas partes do mundo, de outro, trouxe à baila a criminalidade cibernética, que contemporaneamente desafia o estabelecimento de uma tutela penal para o ciberespaço no que tange a impunidade. Isso decorre do fenômeno da globalização, a qual encurtou distâncias em face dos avanços tecnológicos e sociais, e as consequências causadas ao direito penal. A presente pesquisa buscou fundamentar como é possível ante os conceitos clássicos de soberania, que um Estado combata a criminalidade cibernética transnacional de maneira efetiva. Para tanto, foram desenvolvidos pontos de como encontra-se o conceito clássico de soberania; as características do ciberespaço; e os conceitos de jurisdição e competência penal. Torna-se assim efetuar uma análise dogmática penal e processual penal se é possível se instituir uma jurisdição penal transnacional como forma de regular o ciberespaço

Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) are crucial to the operation and development of the Internet. However, through the performance of their basic functions, they faced the great risk of civil and criminal liability for unlawful content posted by third parties. As this risk threatened the potential of the Internet, various jurisdictions opted to promulgate legislation that granted ISP’s safe harbours from liability. The South African (RSA) response is Chapter XI of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA). The protection it provides is however not absolute. It is limited to ISP’s that are members of an Industry Representative Body (IRB) and those ISP’s must perform particular functions in relation to third party content in a certain manner to obtain limited liability. Due to the ECTA’s limited application and a lack of authority, the question is raised as to what is the liability of ISP’s for unlawful content posted by third parties? This dissertation pays particular attention to ISP liability for third party defamatory statements, hate speech, and obscene and indecent material. The role and characteristics of ISP’s in the functioning of the Internet is described. It is determined that a wide legal definition would be required to encompass the many roles they perform. The definition provided by the ECTA is wide and many different types of ISP can fall underneath it. This may have unintended consequences as entities may receive protection that the legislature did not intend. The appropriate laws in the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom are surveyed and suggestions as to the extent of ISP liability in circumstances where the ECTA does not apply are made. It is established that their position is uncertain due to difficulties in applying the law to the Internet. This could result in the law being applied incorrectly and ISP’s erroneously found liable. The ECTA’s threshold requirements limit the availability of the safe harbor provisions to ISP’s that are members of a recognised IRB. The IRB must comply with an extensive set of requirements to obtain recognition. The purpose of these requirements is to ensure that only responsible ISP’s obtain the protection provided by the act. After an examination of these requirements, their necessity is questioned as their purpose appears to be contrary to the logic of the safe harbours provided by the ECTA. The safe harbours are analysed and comparisons made to similar legislation that exists in the USA and the European Union (EU). It was established that the ECTA is a hybrid of the USA and EU legislation, and to a certain extent improves on them. It was suggested that the extent of ISP liability in relation to certain unlawful content is clearer under the ECTA. However, exceptions may exist in relation to hate speech and obscene and indecent content as a result of legislation that does not properly take the technology of the Internet into account. It was recommended that certain action be taken to correct this position to prevent any negative effects on the Internet industry and conflict with the objectives of the ECTA. The provision of limited liability contained in the ECTA is balanced with a notice and takedown procedure, which provides relief to victims of unlawful content. This procedure is analysed and it appears to be effective in providing relief. However, through an examination of concerns raised in relation to this type of procedure as it exists in the USA and the EU, it is suggested that certain flaws exist. The take-down procedure negatively effects the freedom of expression and the third party’s rights to due process. Further, the threshold requirements result in not all the users of the Internet being provided with the same remedies. It is recommended that certain action be taken to correct these flaws. The solution provided by the ECTA should be favoured over the uncertainty that existed before it promulgation. It may be necessary to correct particular flaws that exist. Certain recommendations are suggested in this regard and the concluding chapter.