We all appreciate how important the internet and in particular Web 2.0 technologies have become. To say they have revolutionised the way individuals and organisations communicate and collaborate with one another is probably an understatement. Whilst this dramatic shift in the way we communicate with friends and colleagues is a positive step, it has not come without some issues. In his latest book Charles Oppenheim looks at the legal problems associated with the use of these new tools by librarians, information managers and owners of Web 2.0 services.
Whilst the book is intended to outline some of the legal issues associated with Web 2.0 technologies, it is not (as the author rightly points out) meant to be used by lawyers, but rather as a guide for non-lawyers to highlight some of the issues they need to think about. The book begins with an introduction to Web 2.0 and some of the features and techniques that are viewed as attributes of Web 2.0 technologies. This is a good introduction to the concept of Web 2.0, although I would say that the term Web 2.0 is used less nowadays then a few years ago. The introduction also includes a summary of some of the legal issues associated specifically with Web 2.0 and why some of the legal issues are “novel”. For example Web 2.0 is international in nature, anyone can contribute, and whilst Web 2.0 technologies are well established the law has yet to catch up.
The book is comprised of 8 chapters, each covering a different legal issue. These are: copyright, other intellectual property rights (IPRs), data protection and privacy, freedom of information, defamation, liability issues and cloud computing. There is also an annotated bibliography of other books and websites that the author has found useful, but as Charles states this is not designed to be comprehensive.
Given the number of legal issues outlined in the introduction you might think the book would weigh a ton, but at 134 pages it is very slim. I think this stands it in good stead, as it means readers can dip into individual chapters and not have to worry about wading through too much text to find what they are looking for. In terms of the chapters themselves, these include case studies and exercises which are helpful as many of them appear to be based on real events. The chapters also include Web 2.0 points; these are legal points that relate specifically to the use of Web 2.0 technologies. For example, in the chapter on Copyright, the Web 2.0 point indicates that “Web 2.0 users are generally both creators of copyright materials and users of third party copyright materials”. These are useful in that they remind readers of how the law applies specifically to these technologies.
Following ‘Copyright’ the book looks at other intellectual property right issues and related rights. These two chapters are by far the biggest chapters in the book, which I think is fair given the impact these laws can have on Web 2.0 technologies. It does however mean that the chapters on ‘Data protection and privacy’, ‘Freedom of Information (FOI)’ and ‘Defamation’ are much shorter. I think this is a shame, especially in relation to FOI which I know a lot of information professionals are interested in, so understanding how it works and what the implications are for them is essential. However, having said that, these chapters do provide very useful introductions to these areas of law.
The penultimate chapter in the book is a chapter on Cloud computing. This chapter is a bit different from the other chapters because it does not look at a single legal issue, but a wide range of legal issues that can arise through the use of cloud computing technologies.
The chapter starts by introducing Cloud computing, which as the author indicates, can be really hard to define. The rest of the chapter looks at the type of contract an organisation is likely to sign up to with a Cloud computing provider; followed by a look at some of the legal issues thrown up by Cloud computing. Unsurprisingly there are a number of legal issues that information professionals need to be aware of. These include information security and data protection; freedom of information and trademark issues. Data protection will be of great concern to organisations, so it is discussed in some detail in this chapter. It concludes with a list of questions to ask a cloud service provider prior to signing up with them.
The final chapter of the book looks at the law of liability and adopts the ‘single legal issue’ approach of the chapters that preceded the Cloud computing discussion.
Overall, ‘The no-nonsense guide to legal issues in Web 2.0 and Cloud computing’ is a good introduction to the legal issues associated with Web 2.0 technologies and Cloud Computing. Its size means it can be dipped into with relative ease and the case studies and Web 2.0 points ensure it is relevant to its intended audience. As a non-lawyer, I found the introductions to different legal issues easy to read and understand and would therefore highly recommend this book to anyone who is currently managing, or is looking at developing, any Web 2.0 technology for their information service.
