The Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just issued Official Letter No. 923/QD-BVHTTDL for the inception of a working group regulating film dissemination in cyberspace given the rampant dissemination of toxic videos and illegal films on digital platforms.
In brief If you sell goods and services to consumers through automatically renewing payment plans, free or discounted trials that convert into full plans, or other “negative option features” that interpret a consumer’s silence as permission to keep charging them (collectively, “recurring subscriptions”), you should monitor and consider submitting comments on the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) proposed Negative Option Rule. The proposed rule would impose detailed transparency, consent, simple cancellation and annual reminder requirements on companies…
February 2023 saw a landmark decision for brand owners and digital assets, as a first instance court decided the first US case to consider the application of trademark rights to digital artworks linked to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). The decision (detailed in our alert here) centered around “MetaBirkins”: a collection of unique virtual tokens linked to digital faux-fur versions of the coveted Hermès Birkin bag. Hermès sued Rothschild for trademark infringement, dilution and cybersquatting, and the…
In recent years, CDA 230 has come under scrutiny for its alleged impact on freedoms of speech, online safety, and misinformation. We describe recent examples of lawmakers and authorities seeking to impose more onerous content moderation restrictions or obligations on digital platforms.
Today marks one month until the 17 February deadline for publishing EU user numbers (or Monthly Active Recipients (“MARs”)) under the Digital Services Act (“DSA”). This applies to online platforms of all sizes that host and disseminate user content, not just “VLOPs”, and the disclosure must be made on a public-facing part of the platform’s interface/website (following art 24(2) DSA). Calculating MARs can be a tricky and lengthy process, complicated by a distinct lack of…
This morning, the Digital Services Act (DSA) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This officially starts the countdown for service designation and the DSA’s application.
On 4 October the European Council officially approved the DSA. That means that the only thing left is for it to be published in the Official Journal, and a spokesperson said yesterday that is going to happen soon: “The DSA, a new online-content regulation, will be signed into EU law on 19 October, an EU spokeswoman has said…The signing ceremony will be held at the European Parliament in Strasbourg 19 October 2022. The DSA says…
El Parlamento Europeo aprobó el 5 de julio el articulado final del Reglamento de Servicios Digitales (DSA) y del Reglamento de Mercados Digitales (DMA). Estas normas regulan la posición jurídica de proveedores de servicios digitales de intermediación (p. e. plataformas como marketplace, motores de búsqueda, redes sociales, servicios de hosting, etc.) y, consecuentemente, afectan también a todos los demás players (usuarios y empresas de todos los tamaños) que interactúan a través de sus servicios.…
I. Introduction This article focuses on the use of NFTs in metaverses. At first, we will briefly introduce NFTs, particularly in the video games industry. Video games feature vast virtual worlds that are a considerable part of many companies’ metaverse strategy, with many of the major fashion brands bringing their products to video games. Subsequently, we will provide insights concerning two key legal areas for NFTs: financial regulation (Section II) and intellectual property rights (Section…
After being postponed twice, the European Commission (Commission) published its draft Digital Markets Act (DMA) on 15th December 2020, in revised form — the EU’s Regulatory Scrutiny Board having objected to earlier iterations. The DMA takes the form of a regulation as the Commission seeks to ensure maximum alignment among Member States. The proposed “Digital Services Act” (DSA ) was published on the same day. You can download and read our in-depth guide to the…