Law and technology

Not much has happened with the Patents Bill since it was reported back from the Commerce Committee last year. It remains unpassed following the pre-election dissolution of Parliament, and will be picked up by the new Parliament next year.

Meanwhile, it seems that lobbying efforts to overturn the unanimously endorsed software patent exclusion have, so far, fallen on deaf ears. At the NetVision 2011 Election Debate held on 18 October, both National (via Steven Joyce) and Labour (via Clare Curran) confirmed that their parties remained committed to the software patent exclusion as recommended by the Commerce Committee. The Greens also confirmed it as their policy.

Video of the event is available here, with the discussion on software patents starting at around 28:20 of part 2.

A pre-announcement:

New High Court Rules (and District Court Rules) promoting the use of electronic discovery come into force on 1 February 2012. Key features of the “default” regime under the new rules include the following:

• Discovered documents must be exchanged electronically.
• Parties must provide a standardised list of discovered documents.
• Documents must be provided in PDF format (unless not possible for particular file types), with the document number as the filename.
• Native files must be provided if requested.
• Parties must take reasonable steps to exclude duplicates.
• Emails and attachments are to be listed separately but sequentially on the document list.

These changes reflect the ever-increasing volume of data (in particular, electronic data) in modern litigation, and the need to effectively and efficiently handle the discovery process.

A New Zealand solution

This new regime requires a new solution. Stay tuned for an announcement of a new web-based electronic discovery system developed right here in New Zealand, that supports the new rules on electronic discovery as well as providing early case assessment and detailed review capabilities. This system has been locally developed over the past several years.

Key features include:

• New Zealand designed and developed system, cognisant of the new High Court Rules on electronic discovery
• Fully managed, web-based solution – no software to install or maintain, and can be accessed on any computer, notebook, or tablet
• Handle projects ranging from a few dozen, up to hundreds of thousands of documents
• Securely access, review and upload project documents anywhere, anytime
• Track discoverability, privilege, confidentiality, and other document attributes
• View common document formats in any standard web browser without the need to install Office software
• Powerful search and analysis capabilities across the document repository
• Generate discovery lists and electronic bundles of documents (native format or converted to PDF, stamped with document numbers)
• Automated handling and de-duplication of Outlook email archives and common document types
• Single-user or collaborative multi-user options (including the ability for clients to upload their own documents)
• Fully locally supported
• Customisable by a local development team
• And much more!

Check back for more information in coming months.

(features described are subject to change before the system is publicly launched)

Stephen Bell of Computerworld recently outlined his views on the privacy bargain:

Another view, which I find more persuasive, is that when we make use of a service like Facebook, we enter a commercial bargain. Something very useful is provided to us free of charge and in exchange we cede something of our private selves to the providers, to be sold for whatever they can earn.

This is also my view, as I have written about here. Interestingly, Stephen got the view of the Privacy Commissioner:

I put this to Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff. She suggests the bargain accepters are not as numerous as I believe, and in the wake of the Facebook and Google embarrassments, privacy champions are becoming a majority.

Yet what is happening is that companies such as Facebook and Google – who arguably stand to lose the most from pushing the privacy envelope a bridge too far – are themselves becoming the leading “privacy champions”, and shaping the future of privacy expectations and regulation at the same time. For example, Google has announced it will be undertaking biennial “independent privacy reviews to keep it on the straight and narrow”.

PR stunt? Window-dressing? Possibly, though assuming not then I think it is a very good idea. But the size and reach of Google means any practical changes will affect users around the world, and shift the goalposts of expectations and norms, years in advance of any regulation. And in the meantime, users will continue to flood to social networks and other systems – many of whom will never have known a world with any different processes or expectations of privacy.

How, then, might Government-imposed regulation be seen? Stephen sums it up very well:

There is a risk that the Privacy Commissioner and her staff might then be seen as the villains, keeping us from using new technology to smooth our businesses and lives because of their legalistic obsession with an abstract value.

The evidence to hand shows the privacy bargain has been well and truly been accepted, for better or for worse. The challenge for any regulation is to be seen as adding value (for citizens) to these bargains, not getting in the way of willing parties.