Naked Law

Compromise reached over Airline Passenger Data Sharing

The US and the EU have concluded an interim agreement under which they will continue to share airline passenger data. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, US authorities requested that all airlines flying passengers from Europe provided 34 pieces of data per passenger, including credit card details, to help spot potential terrorists. Airlines which failed to provide such information faced fines of up to $6,000 per passenger or the withdrawal of landing rights.

The European Commission had originally agreed the handover of passenger data, however the European Parliament opposed it on the grounds that it breached data protection principles and the privacy rights of travellers.  The ECJ ruled that the agreement was technically flawed and that a new one should be made, but did not rule on the substance of the agreement.

Under the new agreement US authorities will not have automatic and direct access to all data from airline computer systems but will have to make an official request for passengers’ information. However, it appears that this is just a temporary fix as the agreement will only apply until the end of July 2007, whereupon a new deal will have to be agreed.

Konami Shoot and Score

Computer game fans might be interested to find out that Konami has been granted a European Patent for a new element of software which allows for the better control and graphical representation of players in a football video game.

The initial patent application for this innovation was refused by the European Patent Office. Konami then appealed to the Technical Board of Appeal, which decided that, though some of the elements of the application would not be allowed, the invention as a whole was patentable.

This successful application provides an illustration of the fact that inventions relating to software can be patentable, despite the general exclusion on the patentability of computer programs as such, set out in Article 52 of the European Patent Convention. Software developers may want to consider whether they could protect their intellectual property using patents.

Open source software to enhance web harvesting

New open source software has been developed to facilitate the compilation and storage of digital archives. The British Library and National Library of New Zealand have worked together with a technology firm to develop the ‘web curator tool’ which has been designed to be easy to use and it will available for use by other organisations through open source by the end of the year.

The software in question will be used by the libraries to archive electronic information available on key web pages including those relating to political parties and significant news events such as the July 7 bombings. It will allow the detail to be retained even once the page has been lost. The software will allow the user to ‘harvest’ electronic information by searching out and gathering snapshots of websites.

The British Library is, under copyright law, a ‘library of deposit’ and a copy of every published book must be sent there (as well as to other designated libraries) for archive purposes. It also has the right to copy certain works from the Internet, so the ability to store web information using the new tool will enable the Library to enhance its archives. The British Library is also arguing that copyright law should be amended to permit the archiving in this way of all copyright material, including material in digital form.