News and Research articles on European Union

Over the years, the video game industry has grown into one of the largest, most profitable entertainment industries in the world. Originality and innovation - instead of fueling competition and guaranteeing a diverse market - are regarded by many as risky ventures. Some would even argue that innovation in the industry is not really innovative at all anymore. It doesn’t come as a surprise then, that user-driven innovation has come to play a considerably important role for the industry in recent years.

This article presents a general analysis of how user autonomy in the internet cloud is increasingly put into jeopardy by the growing comfort and efficiency of the user-interface. Although this issue has not been, thus far, explicitly addressed by the law, it is a fundamental ethical question that should be carefully assessed to guide the future deployment of cloud computing.

gTLDs are the highest level of domain names in the domain name system, including .com, .net and .org; their number has been restricted to twenty-two for several years. This will change, as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the organisation responsible for managing and coordinating the system - rolls out a new gTLDs programme. Businesses and organisations are now able to apply for their own customised top-level domain names. But ICANNs move is mired in controvery, as Francesca Musiani reveals.

The last years have seen a growing politicisation of intellectual property issues, especially those relative to the internet. Sebastian Haunss assesses the current state of the policy field and draws attention to three parallel processes, which structure the future development of intellectual property policies related to the internet: the growing focus on enforcement, the plurilateralisation of international IP policies, and the trend to open access.

When it comes to information technology Sweden is considered to be at the forefront both in terms of technological innovation, as well as in progressive policy-making, regulation and internet freedom. It seems that from a policy perspective Sweden is an interesting example, as it is both perceived as free and neutral, while at the same time pursuing a tough and much contested policy approach. The following ‘snapshot’ seeks to give a brief, yet nuanced picture of the Swedish policy landscape.

Liberal democracies are increasingly considering internet filtering as a means to assert state control over online information exchanges. A variety of filtering techniques have been implemented in Western states to prevent access to certain content deemed harmful. This development poses a series of democratic and ethical questions, particularly when states introduce regulation mandating ISPs to block online content. A first version of this article was previously published at the FOCI'12 conference.