Information Society Law Summaries

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ICTs to facilitate the transition to an energy-efficient, low-carbon economy by Ina Dimireva — last modified 14 January 2010, 12:02 CET

The EU is committed to a 20 % reduction in its carbon emissions by 2020. This target will be difficult to reach if the potential of ICTs is not fully exploited. ICTs can allow CO2 emissions to be reduced considerably whilst bringing the European Union up to a high level of innovation and competitiveness.

Safer Internet programme 2009-2013 by Ina Dimireva — last modified 14 January 2010, 12:02 CET

The online environment is becoming more and more accessible and, together with bringing benefits, it exposes users to a wide range of risks. Minors are becoming increasingly active as users, but are also particularly vulnerable. The EU “Safer Internet” programme intends to improve the online safety of children by tackling not only illegal material, but also harmful conduct.

Data protection in the electronic communications sector by Ina Dimireva — last modified 07 January 2010, 17:02 CET

New technologies, and in particular the Internet and electronic messaging services, call for specific requirements to ensure that users have a right to privacy. This EU Directive contains provisions that are crucial to ensuring that users can trust the services and technologies they use for communicating electronically. The main provisions apply to spam, ensuring the user's prior consent ("opt-in"), and the installation of cookies.

Copyright and related rights in the EU: term of protection by Ina Dimireva — last modified 16 December 2009, 18:14 CET

This Directive aims to harmonise the term of protection for copyright and related rights in the EU. It sets the term of protection for copyright at 70 years and for related rights at 50 years.

Towards a Single Market in Creative Content Online by Ina Dimireva — last modified 03 December 2009, 16:19 CET

Online content knows no bounds and is on the increase. Reaching almost 500 million consumers, content services could significantly enhance the competitiveness of the European music, film and games industry by 2010. This is why the European Commission is encouraging the development of a stronger and more consumer-friendly internal market for online creative content within the European Union.