1,721,004 research outputs found
Liability for IoT Standards in the EU. ‘And yet it moves’?
Full text linkBusinesses all over the world consider standards essential enablers of technological development. Standards are sets of processes that allow to build products in the most efficient and, hopefully, safe way. From a decision-making point of view, standards represent the consensus of a precise group of stakeholders on what it takes for a product to be considered ‘state of the art’. These considerations also apply to the Internet of Things (IoT), a technology based on sensors incorporated in objects connected to cloud spaces. If standards do not work as they should private law issues will arise. Imagine that a manufacturer of a IoT object applies a standard that is considered state of the art from the major stake-holders in its field. Imagine damage happens because of the application of this standard and, as a consequence, people are severely injured. Think further and make the hypothesis that through a legal action it is ascertained that the standard caused the object to malfunction. Who is to be considered liable? The aim of this blogpost is to investigate the slow evolution of the IoT standards liability debate within Member States (MS) by considering also the Data Act, one of the most recent EU proposed regulations applicable to the IoT
The Preliminary Report of the Sector Inquiry into Consumer Internet of Things: what is new for EU Consumer and Data Protection law?
Full text linkThis short report concerns a firs evaluation of the EU Commission Inquiry into the Consumer Internet of Things from a Consumer and Data Protection law point of vie
STANDARD SETTING ORGANISATIONS FOR THE IOT: HOW TO ENSURE A BETTER DEGREE OF LIABILITY?
Full text linkThis early stage research article aims to outline an issue that, though not strictly connected to the cyber-sphere, is most likely going to affect it. Standard Setting/Developing Organisations (SSOs/SDOs) are getting more and more important in the electronics manufacturing field and also in the IP field by setting de facto mandatory rules for products to be safer but, most importantly, more efficient. Standards create trust in complex objects such as IoT devices, that are increasingly more available, especially the ones for the house. It is worth mentioning that the standards these organisations envision are not comparable to legislation but carry a significant ‘moral’ weight (soft law). However, these organisations are private in character and work on a voluntary basis. The problem lies in the creation of the standard when the essentiality of a patented innovation has to be assessed. These processes rely on the self-certification of businesses that their invention is truly essential to the development of a certain standard, which has led to a proliferation of new Standard Essential Patents (S.E.P.s). But in this case, there are no means to ensure some form of liability of these organisations when defects and shortcomings arise. It is argued that unless some form of liability is created for these organisations, IoT objects will never gain the trust of final users
Sustainability and The Smart Home: The Challenges of an Interconnected Environment
Full text linkThis paper would like to be a bridge between technical and legal knowledge as far as the construction of environmentally sustainable and privacy compliant homes is concerned. Uniting data protection law as the leading legal subject guiding us through the Digital Revolution with the SDG30 objectives is already the preferable option for housing in unsettled times like the ones we are living. This paper will analyse the actual weakness of the current smart home from a data protection point of view and will argue that the principle of privacy by design and by default is already influencing new techniques that could fix the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm from within. It is wished that the interdisciplinary collaboration between legal scholars and technical experts becomes stronger as regulation will never be able to keep up with the pace of technolog
Internet Protocol Standards for IoT Interoperability in the House. Open Issues in EU Competition Law
No full textIoT for the house raises several concerns under the EU Competition and IP law. In order to create a better level of interoperability between the different smart home IoT objects, undertakings are willing to create new standards, in particular concerning the Internet Protocol. However, this problem seems to be over. In December 2019, Google, Amazon, Apple, Ikea, the ZigBee alliance and many other undertakings belonging to the electronics and innovation world joined together to form the project “connected home over IP” whose main goal is to create “…a new, royalty free, connectivity standard”. This paper aims at giving a first analysis of this project under a competition law and IP law perspective. The main focus will be both on the interplay between Art.101(1),(3) TFEU and on Standard Essential Patents (SEPS) applied to this project. It will be argued that if this project is considered a collusive agreement, it could become a new case in the SEP litigation framework
Circular economy in the tourism sector: an overview of tourism enterprises and tourist behavior
No full textThe tourist industry, after a slow recovery following the pandemic events, is regaining positions in the ranking of the most profitable sectors
worldwide. Indeed, considering its high environmental and social impact,
the tourism sector cannot escape the challenge of sustainability, by embracing the circular economy approach.
Currently, this challenge, although debated in the academic literature, is not
yet sufficiently studied at the managerial level, so tourism enterprises do not
have adequate tools to evaluate their circularity. This paper aims to provide
an overview of existing circular economy frameworks in the tourism sector,
both at academic literature and managerial level.
The research is approached according to qualitative methodology, consisting of the literature review on the circular economy in the tourism sector, and the identification of best practices at international and Italian level. This study has a theoretical impact, providing a literature overview on
the debated topic and the potential gaps to be filled, and a managerial impact, providing a set of guidelines deriving from the analysis of existing best
practices
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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The effect of organic compounds in the oxidation kinetics of Cr(III) by H2O2
No full textThe oxidation of Cr(III) has been studied in NaCl solutions in the presence of two siderophore models, acetohydroxamic acid (Aha) and benzohydroxamic acid (Bha), the natural siderophore Desferal (DFOB) and the synthetic aminocarboxilate (ethylenedinitrilo)-tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) as a function of pH (8-9), ionic strength (0.01-2 M) and temperature (10-50 degrees C), at different Cr(III)-organic compound ratios. The addition of Aha and Bha caused the rates to increase at low ligand/Cr(III) ratios and decrease at high ratios. The variation of the pseudo first order rate constant (k(1)) as a function of the ligand concentration has been attributed to the formation of three Cr(III)-organo species (1:1, 1:2, 1:3), which can form in the presence of monohydroxamic acids. A kinetic model has been developed that gives a value of 600 (min(-1)) for the pseudo first order rate constant k(1CrAha)(2+) and values approaching zero for k(1CrAha2)(+) and k(1CrAha3). These kinetic results demonstrate that these monohydroxamic acids are able to bind with Cr(III) under experimental conditions that may occur in natural waters and can increase the oxidation rates of Cr(III) with H2O2 by a factor of 3.5 at an Aha/Cr(III) ratio of about 50-100. The monohydroxamic acids also affect the rates on aged products of Cr(III), suggesting that these ligands are able to affect the oxidation rates by releasing reactive Cr(III). DFOB and EDTA do not have a great effect on the oxidation of Cr(III) with H2O2. This is thought to be due to the much longer times they need to form complexes with Cr(III) compared to Aha and Bha. The rates for the formation of DFOB and EDTA complexes with Cr(III) are not competitive with the rates of the formation of aged Cr(III). After allowing Cr(III) and DFOB to react for 5 days to form the complex, reaction rates of Cr(III) with H2O2 appear to be lowered probably because of steric hindrance of the chelated Cr(III). (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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