AFRICOM's Relationship to Oil, Terrorism and China

Why a combatant command for Africa? I argue that AFRICOM was formed to implement the U.S. national security strategy that seeks to strengthen states and eliminate ungoverned space, as well as establish relationships with African states that offer a means to greater state stability and foster economic development. In so doing, it counters global jihadist by denying them haven among weak governments or in ungoverned areas. It protects U.S. interests in resources by helping governments become more stable. And it competes with the Chinese approach that could worsen the status quo of ineffective states and ungoverned space. Indeed, the U.S. approach of increasing state effectiveness makes African countries less susceptible to the problems that may arise from the Chinese approach and so serves China's interests in access to natural resources.     

Legal developments and industry issues relevant to IT,media and telecommunications law in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific

This column provides a country by country analysis of the latest legal developments, cases and issues relevant to the IT, media and telecommunications' industries in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific region. The articles appearing in this column are intended to serve as ‘alerts’ and are not submitted as detailed analyses of cases or legal developments.     

Towards a new generation of CCTV networks: Erosion of data protection safeguards?

CCTV networks are progressively being replaced by more flexible and adaptable video surveillance systems based on internet protocol (IP) technologies. The use of wireless IP systems allows for the emergence of flexible networks and for their customization, while at the same time video analytics is easing the retrieval of the most relevant information. These technological advances, however, bring with them threats of a new kind for fundamental freedoms that cannot always be properly assessed by current legal safeguards. This paper analyses the ability of current data protection laws in providing an adequate answer to these new risks.     

War and the East

This article proposes three lesson plans for teaching Asian military history to High School students. Each case study—Sun Tzu's Art of War, the Mongols, and the Rise and Fall of Imperial Japan—is structured around a primary source in translation and is designed to highlight the depth and diversity of the Asian experience with war. They allow us to see the East as more than a venue for the West's wars and also to appreciate the array of indigenous military and strategic cultures that have arisen and competed in Asia over the last three millennia.     

Privacy regulations on biometrics in Australia

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the current regulatory environment, at the federal level, of privacy protection concerning biometrics in Australia. The study only focuses on the federal Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Biometrics Institute Privacy Code. The discussion is based on the legal concerns of the use of biometrics, and an analysis is made concerning the implications of privacy protection sources.     

It's not the time they spend, it's what they do: The interaction between delinquent friends and unstructured routine activity on delinquency : Findings from two countries

This study examines whether having delinquent friends interacts with other peer-related variables in the explanation of adolescent offending. We hypothesise that the relationship between delinquent friends and offending might be conditioned by the effect of (1) how much time they spend with their friends, (2) how much time they spend in unstructured routine activities and (3) their emotional relationship with their friends. To test these three hypotheses we use data from two independent samples of young adolescents in Halmstad, Sweden (N = 1,003) and in Cologne and Freiburg, Germany (N = 955). The results found strong support that the effect of delinquent friends on adolescent offending is conditional on the level of time they spend in unstructured routine activities. This indicates that delinquent friends have a stronger effect on offending for adolescents who often spend their free time in unstructured routine activities.     

EU update

This is the latest edition of Baker & McKenzie's column on developments in EU law relating to IP, IT and telecommunications. This article summarises recent developments that are considered important for practitioners, students and academics in a wide range of information technology, e-commerce, telecommunications and intellectual property areas. It cannot be exhaustive but intends to address the important points. This is a hard copy reference guide, but links to outside websites are included where possible. No responsibility is assumed for the accuracy of information contained in these links     

The “process” of patenting: Why should we care about a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bilski v. Doll?

In Bilski v. Doll, the U.S. Supreme Court is called to define one of the categories of patent-eligible subject matter, “process” patents. In 2008, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the category has a narrow meaning, and that to be eligible for a process patent under 35 U.S.C. § 101, the invention must involve a machine or apparatus or involve a transformation to a different state or thing, ultimately rejecting the patent application as unpatentable subject matter. The patent applicants have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine two issues: first, the meaning of “process” in 35 U.S.C. § 101 and whether the lower court properly relied on a “machine-or-transformation” test, and second, the test's potential conflict with 35 U.S.C. § 273, which provides protection for “method[s] of doing or conducting business.” The Court's decision could change the way that research and business are done, and patent protection for such investments. Parts 1 and 2 of this article address Bilski directly and what is and is not in dispute. Part 3 addresses the “machine-or-transformation” test, while Parts 4 and 5 address reasons not to adopt such a test.