Legal Workshop EWIS

1
Legal Workshop EWIS

• Brussels
• 19 January 2002

2
Agenda

• Identify and prioritise issues
• Agree agenda (next weeks, next months)
• Identify existing initiatives/solutions/expertise

3
Disclaimer

• Identifying the legal issues depends on
• How does the system work? We dont know yet.
• On the other hand
• Pro-active work, influence the technical
  infrastructure by legal guidance
• Our task
• Make sure that the technical solution is legally
  conform

4
Already identified legal issues

• Data protection
• Privacy
• Competition law
• Liability
• IP issues
• Forensic/criminal law
• EU national regulatory concerns.

5
Other issues?

• Administrative law issues
• Jurisdictional issues
• Business law issues (competition,
  confidentiality)

6
Legal issues

• May have an effect on
• Organization of EWIS
• Technical architecture of EWIS

7
FYI List of priorities

• 1 should be done today
• 2 should be done during the creation of the
  business model (technical framework)
• 3. Should be done after the creation of the
  business model (technical framework)
• 4. During operation

8
Administrative law issues

• What could be the function of regulatory
  institutions and other bodies with respect to
  this project?
• Legal status of EWIS
• Is it a legal person, international association?
  Who will be the members? Other possibilities?
  Incorporation in which country? Establishment
  procedures? Public-private ?
• Access to government information
• Public access rules for governmental information
• Is an organizational issue, not a technical issue
• Task set up a small legal team (also from policy
  side) assisting the organizational set up of EWIS
  make use of the knowledge of other project
  teams (eg. EESSI efforts on electronic signature
  standardisation)
• Relevance crucial basic necessity
• Priority 1

9
E-commerce legal issues

• Issue applicability of the directive on
  E-commerce (e.g. Information society service?)
  and other European (and national) legal
  instruments having an impact on EWIS
• Task
• report on the consequences of the laws taking
  into account the business model that EWIS will
  adopt? check the model
• Support the commercial team on deciding which
  model
• Relevance depends on the business model
• Priority 1 for the report
• 2 assistance

10
Competition law (anti-trust)

• Issue
• private sector market players need to notify when
  working together (89 Treaty)
• Open/closed character of the system can have
  consequences on fair competition
• Task support the commercial team by flagging up
  the potential legal barriers
• Relevance high (depends on e.g.
  Profit/non-profit character of EWIS)
• Priority 2

11
Data protection

• Issue EWIS will use personal information inside
  EU and outside EU
• Which kind of personal information is being
  collected?
• Is EWIS going to process personal information?
• Anonimisation of the information problem of
  cooperation with law enforcement (need to provide
  personal data to legal authorities)
• Debate is still going on (e.g. data retention
  debate)
• Task check current procedures of data collection
  and processing on conformance with EU data
  protection legislation
• Relevance low
• Priority 2

12
Telecom secrecy

• Issue Use of information security tools? Are
  intrusion detection systems going to be
  introduced?
• Need to respect laws on telecom secrecy, right on
  private communication, etc.
• Every information that is collected by EWIS
  should be done in a legal way
• Task? Keep it in the legal checklist
• Relevance low (probably no need for in
  depth-investigation since current architecture is
  not going to use intrustion software)
• Priority 2

13
Authentication

• Issue need for information that is integer and
  cannot be repudiated?
• Need for digital or other electronic signatures?
• How to conciliate anonymity and authentication
  (from a legal perspective)
• Task investigate whether there is a need for
  legally recognized signatures? (eg for liability
  reasons need for signed messages from the
  members)
• Relevance crucial
• Priority 2

14
Business confidentiality

• Issue
• How to protect confidential business information
  although companies need to work together
• If the provided information is not on a
  confidential basis, no company will participate
• Task investigate and create legal instruments to
  guarantee confidentiality and anonymity where
  needed (business contracts)
• Relevance crucial
• Priority 3

15
Intellectual Property Rights

• Issue IP problems could arise in at least 4
  scenarios
• EWIS Database (different levels of data!)
• Technical solutions developed and provided by
  EWIS
• Technical solutions by third parties (e.g.
  university) fostered by EWIS
• Technical solutions developed and provided by
  participant
• Task
• Need to investigate which legal IP risks and
  opportunities may exist for EWIS and the
  participants
• make sure the IP issues are cleared in the Terms
  of Reference look for alternative source
  models?
• Relevance crucial (e.g. Cross certification
  project) Is a basic condition for getting the
  private companies together. But depends on the
  business model adopted.
• Priority 1

16
Liability

• Issue
• Liability for incorrect, incomplete, delayed
  information, Liability for vulnerabilities caused
  by disclosures
• Different liability rules for governmental
  institutions/private bodies (businesses)
• Categorize the parties involved (e.g. EWIS,
  information user, information provider, etc.)
• Insurance as solution? Need for business
  contracts.
• Task
• need for study on liability risks, which parties
  are involved, possible solutions for minimizing
  the liability risks
• Need for legal assistance when developing
  business model
• Need for legal assistance on drafting business
  contracts
• Relevance crucial
• Priority
• Study 1
• Assisting model developers 2
• Drafting business contracts 3

17
Forensic-criminal law

• Issue What is the relation with law enforcement
  (Legal provisions on collaboration with law
  enforcement authorities)?
• Task Investigate whether EWIS procedures are
  legally acceptable (e.g. Aim is to provide only
  technical advice to law enforcement) by e.g
  cybercrime convention (CoE), national cyber crime
  laws etc.
• Relevance high
• Priority 2

18
EU National policy concerns

• Issue need to embed the EWIS initiative in EU
  national current and future policy work.
• Necessity to consider 3rd country and
  international initiatives (eg. US OECD)
• Task legal assistance during the modeling of
  EWIS
• Priority 2

19
Future tasks

• Bench marking (check how other projects deal or
  have dealt with the issues)
• Study which legal constraints may prevent
  partners from participating in the EWIS project
• 1. Continuous Legal support to commercial and
  architectural teams