Platforms and Metaverse
Our research focuses on the legal aspects of platform regulation and intermediary liability in the online environment. It addresses the challenges and opportunities arising from the rapid growth of online platforms and the increasing role of intermediaries in facilitating online communication and commerce. Our research emphasizes the following areas:
(1) Analysis of the legal frameworks and policies governing online platforms and intermediaries, including data protection, privacy, competition, and consumer protection laws and regulations.
(2) Providing recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of these legal frameworks, promoting the growth of online platforms while safeguarding the rights and interests of users and other stakeholders.
(3) Investigation of the role of intermediaries in facilitating online communication and commerce, and exploration of the legal challenges and opportunities associated with their expanding influence.
(4) Examination of platforms' and intermediaries' content moderation practices, including handling allegedly infringing intellectual property content, and the impact of regulations on their business models.
(5) Study of the impact of international trade agreements and investment treaties on the regulation of online platforms and intermediaries, shedding light on the role of law in shaping the global governance of the Internet.
Additionally, our research is actively engaged with the legal issues and regulatory challenges posed by the Metaverse. In particular, the proliferation of virtual worlds and digital content in the Metaverse has raised complex questions regarding the protection and enforcement of IP rights. For example, we conduct research on the legal frameworks governing virtual property and assets in the Metaverse, examining how they differ from those applicable to physical property and assets. We also explore the challenges and opportunities presented by new forms of IP, such as virtual trademarks and copyrights, and how they can be enforced in the Metaverse. Moreover, our research cluster examines the intersection between the Metaverse and the creative industries, studying how content creators and artists can protect their rights in this space and how the Metaverse impacts traditional creative sectors.
People
Ethan Shattock
Publications
G Frosio, 'Platform Responsibility in the Digital Services Act: Constitutionalising, Regulating, and Governing Private Ordering' in Andrej Savin and Jan Trzaskowski (eds), Research Handbook on EU Internet Law (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2023).
G Frosio, 'Regulatory Shift in State Intervention: From Intermediary Liability to Responsibility' in E Celeste, A Heldt, C Iglesias Keller (eds), Constitutionalising Social Media 151-175 (Hart Publishing, 2022).
G Frosio, 'A New Social Covenant for Online Creativity in the Algorithmic Society: Lessons from the CJEU' (ALTI Forum, 10 October 2022).
A G Frosio, 'Freedom to Share', 53 Int'l Rev Intell. Prop. and Comp. (IIC) 1145–1148 (2022)
G Frosio, 'Articolo 17 della direttiva 790/2019/UE sul diritto d’autore nel Mercato Unico Digitale: direttiva e implementazione nazionale lasciano i diritti fondamentali sospesi' (2022) Giurisprudenza Italiana, Parte IV.
M Farrell, N Shackleton, E Agnew, S Hopkins and J Power, 'Regulating tech-sex and managing image-based sexual abuse: an Australian perspective' (2022) Information and Communications Technology Law (Early online date).
J Power, L Moor, J Anderson, A Waling, A James, N Shackleton, A-M Farrell, E Agnew and GW Dowsett, 'Traversing TechSex: benefits and risks in digitally mediated sex and relationships' (2022) 19(1) Sexual Health 55-69.
E Agnew and A-M McAlinden, 'Harmful sexual behaviour among children and young people online. Cultural and regulatory challenges' in R Killean, E Dowds and A-M McAlinden (eds.), Sexual violence on trial: Local and comparative perspectives (Taylor and Francis - Balkema, 2021) 109-121.
E Agnew and A-M McAlinden, 'Harmful Sexual Behaviours Among Children and Young People On-Line: Cultural and Regulatory Challenges' in R Killean, E Dowds and A-M McAlinden (eds.), Sexual Violence on Trial: Local and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge, 2021).
G Frosio, 'Enforcement of European Rights on a Global Scale' in E Rosati (ed), Routledge Handbook of European Copyright Law 413-440 (Routledge 2021).
G Frosio, 'Website Blocking Injunctions in Flux: Static, Dynamic, and Live', 16 Oxford JIPLP (2021)
G Frosio and O Bulayenko, 'Study on Dynamic Blocking Injunctions', commissioned by the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) (March 2021).
G Frosio and C Geiger, 'Taking Fundamental Rights Seriously in the Digital Services Act’s Platform Liability Regime', Study Commissioned by Copyright for Creativity (C4C) (2020)
G Frosio, 'Reforming the C-DSM Reform: a User-Based Copyright Theory for Commonplace Creativity', (2020) 52(6) Int'l Rev Intell Prop and Comp (IIC) 709-750
G Frosio, 'Algorithmic Enforcement Online' in Paul Torremans (ed.), Intellectual Property Law and Human Rights 709-744 (4th edition, Wolters Kluwer 2020).
G Frosio, 'It’s All Linked: How Communication to the Public Affects Internet Architecture' (2020) 37 Comp Sec L R
J P Quintais, G Frosio, S van Gompel, B Hugenholtz, M Husovec, B J Jütte, and M Senftleben, 'Safeguarding User Freedoms in Implementing Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive: Recommendations from European Academics' (2020) 10(3) JIPITEC 277-282.
Giancarlo Frosio (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Online Intermediary Liability (Oxford University Press 2020).
G Frosio, 'Mapping Intermediary Liability Online' in Giancarlo Frosio (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Online Intermediary Liability (Oxford University Press 2020) 3-33.
C Geiger, G Frosio and E Izyumenko, 'Intermediary Liability and Fundamental Rights' in G Frosio (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Online Intermediary Liability 138-152 (Oxford University Press 2020).
G Frosio and S Mendis, 'Monitoring and Filtering: European Reform or Global Trend?' in G Frosio (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Online Intermediary Liability 544-565 (Oxford University Press 2020).
G Frosio and M Husovec, 'Intermediary Accountability and Responsibility' in G Frosio (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Online Intermediary Liability 613-630 (Oxford University Press 2020).
G Frosio, 'To Filter or Not to Filter? That is the Question in EU Copyright Reform' (2018) 36(2) Cardozo Arts & Entertainment L J 101-138.
Eugene C Lim, 'Brands as Cultural Symbols in Virtual Realities: Challenging the Paradigms of Commerce in the Virtual Platform Economy', paper presented at the Legal Implications of the Platform Economy Workshop II, Hong Kong, 16 September 2019.
G Frosio, 'Why Keep a Dog and Bark Yourself? From Intermediary Liability to Responsibility' (2018) 25 Oxford Journal of Int’l Law & Inf Tech 1-33.
G Frosio, 'Pragmatismo, contaminazioni e politiche del linking nella giurisprudenza della CGEU' (2017) 26 Annali Italiani del Diritto d’Autore (AIDA) 349-375.
G Frosio, 'The Death of 'No Monitoring Obligations': A Story of Untameable Monsters' (2017) 8(3) JIPITEC 199-215
G Frosio, 'Internet Intermediary Liability: WILMap, Theory and Trends' (2017) 13 Indian Journal of Law and Technology 16.
G Frosio, 'Reforming Intermediary Liability in the Platform Economy: A European Digital Single Market Strategy' (2017) 112 Northwestern U L Rev 19-46.
G Frosio, 'From Horizontal to Vertical: An Intermediary Liability Earthquake in Europe' (2017) 12(7) Oxford JIPLP 565-575.
G Frosio, 'Digital Piracy Debunked: A Short Note on Digital Threats and Intermediary Liability' (2016) 5(1) Internet Policy Review 1-22.