Caching meaning

Hotlinking does not constitute copyright infringement (Wheat v Alphabet Inc/Google LLC & Anor) Wheat v Alphabet Inc/Google LLC & Anor [2018] EWHC 550 (Ch) (26 March 2018) What are the practical implications of this case? The decision addresses the thorny issue of whether hotlinking can give rise to claims for breach of contract or copyright infringement. Its technical effect may divert searches away from the originator’s site to an aggregator, with a corresponding loss of advertising revenue. The case shows how evolving technology disrupts existing business models, and the difficulties of pursuing remedies for perceived wrongs within legal frameworks that can lag behind innovation. It further highlights the perils for litigants in person stepping into areas that test even experienced litigators. What was the background? The claimant, acting in person, runs the website ‘theirearth.com’, which hosts original material, including photographs of prominent sports personalities over which he claims copyright. An aggregator site does not in fact copy items such as photographs from the locations where they...

This News Analysis was first published on 16 June 2023. It has subsequently been updated to take account of the Online Safety Act 2023 and the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023. What is the practical effect of reg 3(2) of the E-Commerce Regulations 2002 The E-Commerce Regulations 2002, SI 2002/2013, set out significant curbs on civil and criminal exposure for providers of online intermediary services (online intermediaries) concerning discrete items of content shared or otherwise conveyed via their systems. Commonly called ‘safe harbours’, these rules restrict the responsibility of online intermediaries, including where they are acting as ‘mere conduits’ (SI 2002/2013, reg 17), performing ‘caching’ (SI 2002/2013, reg 18), or ‘hosting’ material (SI 2002/2013, reg 19). In summary, under the E-Commerce Regulations 2002, online intermediaries are not accountable for unlawful content on their platforms unless they possess specific knowledge of it. Once alerted to illegal material, they must move swiftly to take it down without delay. See Practice Note: The liability exemptions/defences under the E-Commerce...

This Practice Note sets out the principal Irish legal and regulatory points a website operator should consider when running a site, such as: The type and functionality of the website Information disclosure requirements Consumer protection Privacy and data protection Cookies Accessibility Cybersecurity Platform-to-business Online payments Advertising, promotions and direct marketing Competition law Taxation Liability for third party content Intellectual property and respecting copyright Geographic and territorial considerations Consideration of electronic data interchange (EDI) arrangements, blockchain, smart contracts or sector-specific laws or regulations, including those applicable to financial services, intermediation services or online auctions, is outside the scope of this Practice Note. The type and functionality of the website Applicable compliance duties and rules differ according to a site’s nature, functionality or purpose. Pinpointing these characteristics is the crucial first step for an operator to establish its Irish legal and compliance obligations. For example, is the website ‘information only’;...

Consideration of electronic data interchange (EDI) frameworks, blockchain, smart contracts, or sector‑specific legislation or regulation, including regimes for financial services, intermediation services, or online auctions, falls outside the scope of this Practice Note. For a primer on EDI and smart contracts, see Practice Notes: Business to business e‑commerce—introduction and Smart legal contracts. For blockchain guidance, refer to Blockchain—overview and Practice Note: Blockchain—key legal and regulatory issues. The type and functionality of the website A website’s compliance obligations and the rules that apply will vary according to the kind of site in question and its intended functionality or aim and audience. As an initial step, the site operator should determine, early on, the nature of the proposed site and the planned extent of its functionality. For example, consider the following questions: will the site be an ‘information only’ destination? will it operate as a platform where third parties upload material or content or execute transactions? will it deliver a service? will it...

This Practice Note sets out how intellectual property and related rights, together with data protection duties, operate in the setting of web crawling, indexing, caching and scraping, viewed from a website operator’s standpoint. An explanation of the terminology The principal concepts of crawling, indexing, caching and scraping are outlined below. Crawling Web crawling is the activity whereby automated programmes (often called ‘bots’, ‘spiders’ or simply ‘web crawlers’) are deployed to traverse and read information across the web. One well-known crawler is Googlebot, which Google uses to copy web pages onto its servers; Google then indexes them (see the section on Indexing) to support searching of the internet. Website operators often provide ‘sitemaps’ (an XML file listing all pages on a site) to assist and enhance search engines’ crawling. Crawlers can also be put to other uses such as ‘scraping’ (see the section on ‘Scraping’) or collecting email addresses to send unsolicited emails (i.e. spamming). In addition to search engines, web crawling...