Explore

(1) This Law regulates the regulates the conditions and manner of information society services, obligations to inform service users, commercial messages, rules relating to the conclusion of the contract in electronic form, the responsibility of service providers of the information society, and monitoring violations. (2) Article 3, par. 1.3. defines an information society service as a "service provided at a distance, for a fee, through electronic equipment for data processing and storage, upon personal request of services users, and especially internet based commerce, offering information and advertising via the Internet, electronic search engines, as well as providing search data and services transmitted by electronic networks, providing access to a network or storage of services users’ data." Moreover, Article 3, par...

(2) Article 2, par, 1.5. defines that producer of an advertising message as a a legal entity, which has been registered for planning advertising activities, creating or producing advertising messages, planning or renting advertising space within public media, or for certain stages of the advertising process. (3) The Law defines various types of advertising which are strictly prohibited, such as advertising calling for a boycott of another person, advertising with prohibited symbols, advertising of pornography, advertising showing use of force, advertising highlighting the dominant position of one gender compared to a person of another gender, advertising of narcotics, alcoholic drinks, tobaccos or weapons. Moreover, abuse of inexperience, ignorance and credulity of juveniles is also strictly prohibited in advertising...

Three years after rights owner Sohu sued Baidu for both direct and indirect copyright infringement of Sohu's hit web series 匆匆那年 (namely, the fleet of time, 2014), Baidu won on appeal at Jiangsu High People’s Court after the 2018 defeat at a lower court. The Court held that users’ uploading, storing and downloading activities do not in themselves constitute dissemination of information over the network with the intent of communicating to the public. Although discovered evidence has shown copies of the web series appearing on Pan, the Court found insufficient proof of users’ actual “sharing” or “disseminating” activities using Pan services on the platform. On a particularly thorny issue of what constitute a valid notice, the Court tossed out Sohu’s MD5 hash matching proposal, holding that the notice failed to provide...

Five months after it was passed in Singapore Parliament, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) came into effect on Wednesday, October 2. Also came online was the POFMA office, the administrative arm of this new law, which is affiliated with Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). Aiming to protect society from misinformation that harms public interests, falsehoods are defined as "statements of fact that are false or misleading" which are to be determined by the POFMA ministers, whom would then decide whether to issue editorial corrections or takedown orders coupled with fines and/or jail time. Civil rights groups, academics, and intermediaries have all voiced concerns as to POFMA's vague and broad languages and the inherent uncertainties of its future applications. Facing dissents that...