Tools of the Trade: Intellectual Property Issues in Electronic Commerce Tools

This article explores some of intellectual property issues that arise out of the use of electronic commerce technology and tools. Part II of the article looks at the issues of ownership in the electronic commerce structure. The author examines the grant of patents for technology underlyingthe Internet and the emerging practice of granting patents for Internet business methods. Part III of the article explores the intellectual property issues which arise out of the use of associational tools such as hyperlinking, meta tags, framing and inline linking. These techniques are the tools of the trade for web site developers and lawyers seeking advise clients in relation to electronic commerce should be aware of the issues

Soldier 2.0: Military Human Enhancement and International Law

Advances in technologies that could endow humans with physical or mental abilities that go beyond the statistically normal level of functioning are occurring at an incredible pace. The use of these human enhancement technologies by the military, for instance in the spheres of biotechnology, cybernetics and prosthetics, raise a number of questions under the international legal frameworks governing military technology, namely the law of armed conflict and human rights law. The article examines these frameworks with a focus on weapons law, the law pertaining to the detention of and by “enhanced individuals,” the human rights of those individuals and their responsibility for the actions they take while under the influence of enhancements

Periodic noise suppression techniques applied to remote sensing images

The image data collected by the JERS-1 OPS, SPOT and AVHRR systems are affected by a variety of periodic (coherent) noise problems, which can be severe in many cases. This paper examines some of these defects and also describes and evaluates a series of methodologies to recover partially or totally the information contained in these data by means of: (i) filtering in the spatial domain (convolution filters), (ii) Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and (iii) filtering in the frequency domain (using Fast Fourier Transforms). Filtering in the spatial domain using relatively small convolution filters can be successfully applied to tackle elementary periodic noise problems. However, variations of theoretically efficient kernels experimented in this study were only able to minimise the effect of such complex noise structures at the expense of significant modification or complete loss of important raw image data. Principal Component Analysis transforms the data so that the noise component is cast into one or more of the high-order principal components. Our experiments show that this technique is able to confine the noise in the higher order PCs, but a significant amount of residual noise was present in the low-order components. Filtering in the frequency domain proved to be a suitable technique to achieve image restoration whilst preserving most of the raw scene information intact. Conventional Fourier operators like the Notch Filter and the Low-pass Elliptically Symmetric Filter (with a Gaussian-shaped intensity profile) can tackle the problems with some noisy images quite reasonably. However, such filters are unable to recover images on which the amplitude of the noise varies heterogeneously producing a series of impulses from low to high frequencies. Both the Zonal Notch Filter (based on the difference of the Fourier spectra of two channels) and the Synergistic Filter (which relies on the convolution theorem) are designed to contour this problem. These are interactive restoration methods that can successfully eliminate or minimise the effects of multiple two-dimensional periodic structures superimposed on both multi-channel and single channel data, respectively.Dados digitais coletados por diversos sensores orbitais (e.g., JERS-1 OPS, SPOT e AVHRR) são comumente afetados por ruídos periódicos (coerentes). Ruídos periódicos são produzidos por erros de instrumentação e/ou flutuações eletrônicas nos sensores e acarretam problemas no processamento e interpretação de imagens digitais. Para que dados ruidosos possam ser melhor utilizados é essencial que o ruído presente nestes seja atenuado ou eliminado. Este artigo examina os ruídos tipicamente presentes em imagens de sensoriamento remoto, abordando uma série de metodologias alternativas para recuperação parcial ou total da informação contida nestes dados. As metodologias investigadas compreendem: (i) filtragem no domínio espacial (filtros de convolução); (ii) análise por Principais Componentes (APC); e, (iii) filtragens no domínio de frequências, utilizando-se Transformadas de Fourier. A filtragem no domínio espacial, por meio de filtros de convolução relativamente pequenos e velozes, pode ser aplicada com sucesso na minimização de ruídos periódicos em imagens de sensoriamento remoto. Entretanto, a grande maioria dos filtros espaciais clássicos disponíveis mostra-se incapaz de atenuar ruídos complexos sem alterar em demasia o sinal da imagem. A análise por Principais Componentes (PCs), por sua vez, realiza uma transformação nos dados de forma que o ruído é alocado em uma ou mais PCs de maior ordem. Nossos experimentos indicam que muito embora esta técnica seja capaz de isolar boa parte do ruído nas PCs de maior ordem, uma grande quantidade de ruído residual ainda permanece nas primeiras PCs. A filtragem no domínio de frequências, utilizando-se operadores Fourier, constituise na mais poderosa ferramenta para a filtragem de ruídos periódicos e recuperação de imagens de sensoriamento remoto ruidosas. Neste processo, o ruído periódico pode ser eliminado seletivamente sem perda ou modificação do sinal. Métodos tais como os filtros Fourier sintonizáveis clássicos (notch filters) e os filtros Fourier passa-baixa elípticamente simétricos (com um perfil de intensidade gaussiano) podem ser utilizados na recuperação deste tipo de dados ruidosos. Entretanto, estes métodos são limitados, principalmente quando os intervalos de frequência associados aos ruídos se superpõem àqueles ocupados pelo sinal da imagem (neste casos, a energia relativa ao ruído mostra-se misturada à energia correspondente ao sinal em regiões de baixa frequência), o que tipicamente ocorre em imagens de sensoriamento remoto. As técnicas aqui apresentadas, denominadas Filtro Sintonizável Zonal (Zonal Notch Filter - envolvendo a subtração do espectro Fourier de duas bandas espectrais distintas) e o Método Sinergístico (compreendendo variações do uso do teorema da convolução), são técnicas adequadas e capazes de atenuar ou eliminar os efeitos produzidos por ruídos periódicos bidimensionais complexos, superimpostos ao sinal de dados multi-canais e de canal único, respectivamente

Wired warfare 3.0: protecting the civilian population during cyber operations

As a general matter, international humanitarian law is up to the task of providing the legal framework for cyber operations during an armed conflict. However, two debates persist in this regard, the resolution of which will determine the precise degree of protection the civilian population will enjoy during cyber operations. The first revolves around the meaning of the term “attack” in various conduct of hostilities rules, while the second addresses the issue of whether data may be considered an object such that operations destroying or altering it are subject to the prohibition on attacking civilian objects and that such effects need be considered when considering proportionality and the taking of precautions in attack. Even if these debates were to be resolved, the civilian population would still face risks from the unique capabilities of cyber operations. This article proposes two policies which parties to a conflict should consider adopting in order to ameliorate such risks. They are both based on the premise that military operations must reflect a balance between military concerns and the interest of States in prevailing in the conflict

The status and use of computer network attacks in international humanitarian law.

The information revolution has transformed both modern societies and the way in which they conduct warfare. This thesis analyses the status of computer network attacks in international law and examines their treatment under the laws of armed conflict. A computer network attack is any operation designed to disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy information resident in computers and computer networks, or the computers and networks themselves. The first part of the thesis deals with a States right to resort to force and uses the U.N. Charter system to analyse whether and at what point a computer network attack will amount to a use of force or an armed attack, and examines the permitted responses against such an attack. The second part of the thesis addresses the applicability of international humanitarian law to computer network attacks by determining under what circumstances these attacks will constitute an armed conflict. It concludes that the jus in bello will apply where the perceived intention of the attacking party is to cause deliberate harm and the foreseeable consequence of the acts includes injury, death damage or destruction. In examining the regulation of these attacks under the Jus in bello the author addresses the legal issues associated with this method of attack in terms of the current law and examines the underlying debates which are shaping the modern laws applicable in armed conflict. Participants in conflicts are examined as increased civilianisation of the armed forces is moving in lock-step with advances in technology. Computer network attacks also present new issues for the law relating to targeting and precautions in attack which are addressed; objects subject to special protections, and their digital counterparts are also examined. Finally the thesis addresses computer network attacks against the laws relating to means and methods of warfare, including the law of weaponry, perfidy and the particular issues relating to digital property

Economic language and economy change: with implications for cyber-physical systems

The implementation of cyber-physical and similar systems depends on prevailing social and economic conditions. It is here argued that, if the effect of these technologies is to be benign, the current neo-liberal economy must change to a radically more cooperative model. In this paper, economy change means a thorough change to a qualitatively different kind of economy. It is contrasted with economic change, which is the kind of minor change usually considered in mainstream discourse. The importance of language is emphasised, including that of techno-optimism and that of economic conservatism. Problems of injustice, strife, and ecological overload cannot be solved by conventional growth together with technical efficiency gains. Rather, a change is advocated from economics-as-usual to a broader concept, oikonomia (root-household management), which takes into account all that contributes to a good life, including what cannot be represented quantitatively. Some elements of such a broader economy (work; basic income; asset and income limits) are discussed. It is argued that the benefits of technology can be enhanced and the ills reduced in such an economy. This is discussed in the case of cyber-physical systems under the headings employment, security, standards and oligopoly, and energy efficiency. The paper concludes that such systems, and similar technological developments, cannot resolve the problems of sustainability within an economy-as-usual model. If, however, there is the will to create a cooperative and sustainable economy, technology can contribute significantly to the resolution of present problems

Avoiding the internet of insecure industrial things

Security incidents such as targeted distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on power grids and hacking of factory industrial control systems (ICS) are on the increase. This paper unpacks where emerging security risks lie for the industrial internet of things, drawing on both technical and regulatory perspectives. Legal changes are being ushered by the European Union (EU) Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive 2016 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) (both to be enforced from May 2018). We use the case study of the emergent smart energy supply chain to frame, scope out and consolidate the breadth of security concerns at play, and the regulatory responses. We argue the industrial IoT brings four security concerns to the fore, namely: appreciating the shift from offline to online infrastructure; managing temporal dimensions of security; addressing the implementation gap for best practice; and engaging with infrastructural complexity. Our goal is to surface risks and foster dialogue to avoid the emergence of an Internet of Insecure Industrial Things