Unblocking the Digital Economy Act 2010 : human rights issues in the UK

This is the accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Review of Law, Computers and Technology on 21 March 2013. The version of record [Romero-Moreno, F. (2013) ‘Unblocking the Digital Economy Act 2010, human rights issues in the UK’, International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 27(1-2): 18-45, first published on line March 21, 2013] is available online via doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2013.764149Through an example of a study utilizing the case-law research method, this paper critically assesses whether taking into account both the findings of Mr La Rue (the United Nations Rapporteur on Human Rights) as well as some Court of Justice of the European Union's (CJEU) case-law, website blocking could be implemented in a way which is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), in particular, with Article 10. Drawing upon, inter alia, Ofcom site blocking review, sections 17 and 18 of the Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA), section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA), and some independent expert evidence, this paper's major argument is that in view of the CJEU SABAM v Scarlet and SABAM v Netlog, the UK government's decision to repeal the website blocking provisions of the DEA appears appropriate. The paper examines the findings of Fox v BT. It contrasts such findings with the CJEU's case-law and in light of the incompatibility of any website blocking measure with the cumulative three-part test set out in the United Nations Rapporteur on Human Rights discusses a number of implications. It concludes that given that the implementation of content blocking systems, such as Cleanfeed is likely to result in general monitoring being carried out; the UK government could possibly be in breach of EU law, namely, Article 15(1) of Directive 2000/31.Peer reviewe

Adapting Traceability in Digital Forensic Investigation Process

Generally, the goals of digital forensic investigation process in a cyber crime are to identify the origin of the incident reported as well as maintaining the chain of custody so that the legal process can take its option. However, the traceability process has become a key or an important element of the digital investigation process, as it is capable to map the events of an incident from different sources in obtaining evidence of an incident to be used for other auxiliary investigation aspects. Hence, this paper introduces the adaptability of the traceability model to illustrate the relationship in the digital forensic investigation process by integrating the traceability features. The objective of this integration is to provide the capability of trace and map the evidence to the sources and shows the link between the evidence, the entities and the sources involved in the process. Additionally, the proposed model is expected to help the forensic investigator in obtaining accurate and complete evidence that can be further used in a court of law

Traceability in Digital Forensic Investigation Process

Digital forensic is part of forensic science that implicitly covers crime that is related to computer technology. In a cyber crime, digital evidence investigation requires a special procedures and techniques in order to be used and be accepted in court of law. Generally, the goals of these special processes are to identify the origin of the incident reported as well as maintaining the chain of custody so that the legal process can take its option. Subsequently, the traceability process has become a key or an important element of the digital investigation process, as it is capable to map the events of an incident from difference sources in obtaining evidence of an incident to be used for other auxiliary investigation aspects. Hence, this paper introduces a trace map model to illustrate the relationship in the digital forensic investigation process by adapting and integrating the traceability features. The objective of this integration is to provide the capability of trace and map the evidence to the sources and shows the link between the evidence, the entities and the sources involved in the process, particularly in the collection phase of digital forensic investigation framework. Additionally, the proposed model is expected to help the forensic investigator in obtaining accurate and complete evidence that can be further used in a court of law

Tracebility in Digital Forensic Investigation Process

Digital forensic is part of forensic science that implicitly covers crime that is related to computer technology. In a cyber crime, digital evidence investigation requires a special procedures and techniques in order to be used and be accepted in court of law. Generally, the goals of these special processes are to identify the origin of the incident reported as well as maintaining the chain of custody so that the legal process can take its option. Subsequently, the traceability process has become a key or an important element of the digital investigation process, as it is capable to map the events of an incident from difference sources in obtaining evidence of an incident to be used for other auxiliary investigation aspects. Hence, this paper introduces a trace map model to illustrate the relationship in the digital forensic investigation process by adapting and integrating the traceability features. The objective of this integration is to provide the capability of trace and map the evidence to the sources and shows the link between the evidence, the entities and the sources involved in the process, particularly in the collection phase of digital forensic investigation framework. Additionally, the proposed model is expected to help the forensic investigator in obtaining accurate and complete evidence that can be further used in a court of la

Risking Communications Security: Potential Hazards of the Protect America Act

A new US law allows warrantless wiretapping whenever one end of the communication is believed to be outside national borders. This creates serious security risks: danger of exploitation of the system by unauthorized users, danger of criminal misuse by trusted insiders, and danger of misuse by government agents

Forensic Traceability Index in Digital Forensic Investigation

Digital crime inflicts immense damage to users and systems and now it has reached a level of sophistication that makes it difficult to track its sources or origins especially with the advancements in modern computers, networks and the availability of diverse digital devices. Forensic has an important role to facilitate investigations of illegal activities and inappropriate behaviors using scientific methodologies, techniques and investigation frameworks. Digital forensic is developed to investigate any digital devices in the detection of crime. This paper emphasized on the research of traceability aspects in digital forensic investigation process. This includes discovering of complex and huge volume of evidence and connecting meaningful relationships between them. The aim of this paper is to derive a traceability index as a useful indicator in measuring the accuracy and completeness of discovering the evidence. This index is demonstrated through a model (TraceMap) to facilitate the investigator in tracing and mapping the evidence in order to identify the origin of the crime or incident. In this paper, tracing rate, mapping rate and offender identification rate are used to present the level of tracing ability, mapping ability and identifying the offender ability respectively. This research has a high potential of being expanded into other research areas such as in digital evidence presentation

Identification in Cyberspace

Cyberspace could be compared with a fancy-dress ball. Before entering this different world everybody chooses a mask of some appearance, a certain social role and comes in with a new identity. As there are many kinds of people, we can find virtual identities which truly correspond to real persons in almost every aspect. However, majority of people use illusory anonymity of the cyberspace to enjoy the freedom to be anybody they want to be. Such people create various masks painted with false colours. These people try to avoid revelation of their real identities. Ways of their identification by means of law are not sufficient and effective yet.In this paper the author is going to focus on non-legal means of identification, namely on technical means and on identity detection with help of publicly available means. Legal conditions of using these means shall be also clarified. The author will try to explore informative value of data acquired this way and answer the question if they can be used as a body of evidence at court

The sources and characteristics of electronic evidence and artificial intelligence

In this updated edition of the well-established practitioner text, Stephen Mason and Daniel Seng have brought together a team of experts in the field to provide an exhaustive treatment of electronic evidence and electronic signatures. This fifth edition continues to follow the tradition in English evidence text books by basing the text on the law of England and Wales, with appropriate citations of relevant case law and legislation from other jurisdictions