Some of the worlds top IT and Telecoms lawyers as well as a plethora of industry representatives gathered to apply their legal and technical minds at a seminal legal conference in Munich that outlines modern legal approaches to the ever-changing legal landscape of technology law.

Organised by the global Computer Law Association (CLA) and held over two days to cover a broad range of telecoms and IT issues, a cream of over 250 delegates from all corners of the world gathered to exchange real-world issues and learn from academics, lawyers, IT industry leads, and authors of numerous books on IT and Telecoms law.

Some 100 international speakers offered their expertise to delegates, which included leading law firms from virtually every continent as well as technology companies Microsoft, Intel, Vodafone, SonyEricsson, Siemens and Gemplus who came to hear how the new legal landscapes evolving in multiple jurisdictions may affect their business. Topics ranged from Legal aspects of Mobile Agreements to the effects of jurisdiction and applicable law uncertainties on internet businesses.

The CLA was founded in 1971 and has over 1,800 members from all over the world. It was formed to act as a repository of information for lawyers, students and in-house counsel about the issues arising in IT and communications. The CLA conferences offer an unique opportunity for Networking with information technology law specialists.

There were two speaker tracks at CLA Munich, for IT another for Telecom, although the converging nature of technologies and their legal implication often blur the distinction. A common theme amongst the speakers is the gradual understanding by legislators around the world of the need for a legal framework that underscores technology evolution in a technology neutral way.

EU Directives and US federal and state law have been passed to bring legal clarity and to promote electronic forms of contracting, to provide a basis for consumer protection in electronic transactions, and to provide a modicum of protection for those entities that act as mere transit points for the flow of information.

Such is the importance of the mobile industry to way of life and its all-encompassing pervasiveness, a special stream was devoted to it. The mobile phone, speakers said, had evolved dramatically from its humble beginnings in the 1970’s in the US and Scandinavia out of its strictures of its genesis as a voice-only ‘first-generation’ system. Technology advances now allow the inclusion of a plethora of novel data services that extends the mobile phone’s utility beyond its original voice design.

Based on progenitor e-commerce laws in formulated by the UN the EC Directives putative Technology neutrality provisions give legal recognition to data messages and Digital Signatures in addition to providing a framework for novel consumer protection for electronic transactions under the broad heading mobile commerce. As it happened with e-commerce through the fixed telephony network, some contend that specific rules should be passed to regulate m-commerce activities.

In this sense, many of the legal initiatives underway in Europe to regulate e-commerce almost certainly would apply to m-commerce. This includes documents in electronic form, support applications, and eligible applications using digital certificates, ensuring the safety and security of electronic transactions, as well as EC Money Directives.

Copyright or Intellectual Property Rights law has also had to evolve to recognize the new digital delivery mechanisms and associated privacy rights. IPRs digital analogue is now known as Digital Rights Management.

Professor Thomas Dreier, a leading copyright expert dissected the EU Directive 2001/29/EC on copyright which appears to frustrate DRM in some respects. He suggested that the EC would be well advised to concentrate on a rather general legislation which provides a framework that leaves enough freedom for a balance to develop between the diverging interests to be involved. Neither should technology take the lead, he says, nor should the law hinder what he termed Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) from being developed, tested and, ultimately, accepted by the market to secure the exclusivity of their copyright. These TPMs are essentially access, copy and use restrictions. In this respect, the prime motive for legislation would be to provide the right incentives for the creation, dissemination and use of copyrighted material on the one hand, and for the development and application of effective TPMs/DRM on the other.

He believes that new encryption technologies may render the dilemma almost obsolete. He warned however that it will have to be carefully examined to what extent digital encryption technology will be available in order to design such a user-, rather than object-oriented TPMs/DRM mechanism. The issue of non-transferability of personal access-keys will have to be solved to lead to a much more acceptable solution and thus make TPMs/DRM-systems more trustworthy than they are right now. The TPMs could also breech EC Privacy laws in that they innately would be monitoring use of the copyrighted material on a real-time basis, something the Directive expressly forbids.

Professor Thomas Horen of the University of Muenster’s spoke of the dichotomy of applying m-commerce to European civil law, indicating that Laws are not efficiently adapted to deal with the legal problems of M-commerce. Most consumer protection regulations cannot be integrated in Mcommerce, he said, for example the regulations on unfair contract terms, the distance selling directives and their focus on information duties, the data protection regulations including written consent models,  the information duties inherent in laws regulating fair trade and legal bans on direct marketing.

He believes that a more US related approach might be required to allow abolition of  all the current legal requirements in order to make m-commerce possible. Old Europe, he says, however tends to ask the question whether the inherent dangers of m-commerce might make it necessary to stick to the rules and prohibit some facets of m-commerce. These dangers may include misleading offers, unclear contract terms, over-egged speed of closing contracts via mobile and the misuse of mobile communications for direct marketing.

Professor Pietro Tamburrini of Tamburrini Savi looked at Legal framework for Mobile Business in particular contracts subscribers have to sign to get service. The raised concerns about the onerous conditions in many of the contracts, especially the informational and credit requirements. Dissecting general contractual terms and conditions offered by Telecom Italia Mobile, WIND and Vodafone, Orange and 02, he believes that some privacy considerations come to the fore, particularly the transparency of information, necessity of the expressed consent, proportionality between the advantages of the operator and subscriber’s convenience, necessity of treatment, as well as safe and fair processing of personal data

A cross-pollination of applicable legal issues was evident in issues surrounding the effects of jurisdiction and applicable law uncertainties on internet businesses. Speaker Michael Hancock said that the Internet magnifies international conflicts of public policy. The US State law for example continue to take a narrow, domestic view of applicable law and jurisdiction, with the result that companies are caught in the middle but are forced to react quickly. This unintended consequence also has an effect on mobile technology, particularly those mobile phones that roam on other networks abroad. he said.