IN THIS ISSUE
Did Keystone cops cause Ealing comedy - BT online service criticised by ASA - Time to free the law - Business asks EU to reconsider cross border data rules - Napster settles some lawsuits - Findlaw publishes Supreme Court rulings analysis - Industry & Professional news in brief - Next issue: 04.10.2001

DID KEYSTONE COPS CAUSE EALING COMEDY ?
Solution 6 sent the following message to is UK and European user base earlier this week:
'I am writing to advise you that Chris Hoad has resigned from the position as General Manager of CMS Europe. Whilst we are sorry to be losing Chris, we accept his reasons for leaving - the difficulties of a daily commute from Cambridgeshire to Ealing, and his desire to return to consulting work in the City - and we wish him every success in the future.'

As Hoad only joined CMS three months ago, on 25 June, his departure is already being linked with the recent announcement that his old firm Clifford Chance (he spent five years there, latterly as head of financial systems) had entered into contractual negotiations to buy its new practice management system from CMS arch rival Keystone. However as it was an open secret that Clifford Chance and Keystone were close even before Hoad joined CMS, here at Legal News Media we suspect Hoad's reason for leaving is genuine and that the timing was coincidental. And, lets face it, who would want to work in Ealing?

BT'S ONLINE SERVICE CRITICISED BY ASA
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has criticised British Telecom's BTopenworld subsidiary for running banner ads describing its unmetered dial-up service BT Anytime as "reliable" after a number of users complained they had problems accessing and using the service.

BTopenworld provided independent research, which appeared to show that customers were happy with its unmetered net access product, but the ASA still upheld the complaint. BTopenworld went on to explain that the problem did not lie with the ISP but with busy BT telephone exchanges. This argument was also dismissed by the ASA.

In a statement the ASA said: "Because intermittent and ongoing problems were preventing some customers from connecting to the internet, the Authority considered that the advertisers' claim that their service was reliable was misleading." BTopenworld has ceased using the banner ad - which carried the slogan "BT Anytime for a fast, reliable service" - until the problems are resolved.

The problems with the ISP operation crowned a bad week for BT which began with the UK's e-commerce minister (and former practising lawyer) Douglas Alexander calling on British Telecom to cut its broadband charges for domestic users to kick start the demand for high speed internet services in the UK.

So far BT has signed up about 80,000 users for its ADSL service, compared with Deutsche Telekom in Germany which already has about 750,000 ADSL users. NTL and Telewest, who are rolling out a rival cable based broadband network in the UK say they are now signing up about 5000 new customers a week and estimate BT is only winning about half that number. There again, the NTL/Telewest service is about £15 a month cheaper than the BT service.

ROLL UP AND HELP FREE THE LAW
The British & Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) is holding a meeting in London on 10 October to report on the latest progress of its "free the law initiative" to make primary legal materials more freely available both to lawyers and members of the public via the internet.

It is now two years since the initiative was launched and while the hardbitten cynics here at Legal News Media believe this is a well meaning but ultimately commercially doomed venture, there are a lot of people putting a lot of effort into trying to make this initiative work. We will be reporting on the event in a subsequent issue.

The event starts at 18:30 (and will run though until about 21:00) and is taking place at Linklaters's Silk Street offices in EC2. There is a £20 fee to cover costs and administration is being handled by the Society for Computers & Law. Email caroline.gould@scl.org

BUSINESSES ASK EU TO RECONSIDER CROSS BORDER DATA FLOW RULES
International business has asked the European Commission to approve contractual safeguards for data flows between the EU and the rest of the world that would avoid imposing what they regard as excessive obligations on companies.

Seven associations, representing a broad cross-section of business interests, this week submitted alternative model contract clauses to EC Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein that would remedy perceived defects in the Commission's own standard clauses, which provide a legal basis for transferring personal data outside the EU. What concerns the associations is the need for contractual safeguards for data flows between the EU and the rest of the world that avoid imposing excessive obligations on companies.

Speaking for the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), one of the signatories of a joint letter delivered to Mr Bolkestein, data protection lawyer Christopher Kuner said: "We appreciate all the work the Commission has done but their clauses impose responsibilities on data importers and exporters which exceed the 'adequate level of data protection' required in the EU Data Protection Directive for international data transfers". Mr Kuner is an attorney in the Brussels office of global technology and finance law firm Morrison & Foerster (MoFo). He participated in the drafting of the alternative clauses.

Business associations backing the joint appeal are: ICC, the Federation of European Direct Marketing (FEDMA), the EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium (Amcham), the Japan Business Council in Europe (JBCE), the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), International Communications Round Table (ICRT), and the European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA).

The EC Commission has said that adoption of its standard clauses does not affect the authorisation of other standard contractual clauses. This cleared the way for business lawyers to draft alternative clauses that they are convinced provide the 'adequate level of protection' that the European authorities seek.

Amcham's Pascale Gelly said: "Development of e-business in a global economy requires that businesses should be free to exchange data, including personal data, about their employees, customers, and prospects outside their own country's borders. At the same time, privacy must be adequately respected. To achieve that, we have proposed a set of contractual requirements bearing on exporters and importers that conform fully to the EC directive on data protection. We are satisfied that they secure the interests of the data subjects without impairing business efficiency."

The alternative clauses are intended to provide just as high a level of data protection as the Commission's clauses, but using more flexible mechanisms that reflect business realities. For example, the clauses provide an alternative to the joint and several liability regime (shared liability between exporters and importers) contained in the Commission's clauses, and include a due diligence responsibility on exporters in dealing with importers. A further safeguard allows exporters to carry out audits to check that data supplied is not being misused.

Mr Kuner said the fact that so many business associations from around the world had joined forces in submitting the alternative clauses to Commissioner Bolkestein was a measure of the importance of a workable EU privacy regime for the world economy. "Business today is global, and companies all over the world need a workable legal regime for data transfers. If the only alternative open to companies is too expensive and burdensome, then they will hesitate to use them, which would both stifle business activity at a time of economic crisis, and deprive consumers of the privacy protection they need."

The full text of the business associations' letter to Commissioner Bolkestein and the text of the Proposed Standard Contractual Clauses can be downloaded from the ICC web site at www.iccwbo.org

NAPSTER SETTLES SOME LAWSUITS
The music file downloading company Napster has announced a major deal with groups representing music publishers and songwriters that will see the company paying $26 million to settle a series of lawsuits. The settlement terms also require the Napster to pay an undisclosed percentage royalty once the service reopens later this autumn as a commercial pay-to-download site - reports suggest Napster has to pay a $10 million immediate advance on these royalties. Unfortunately the deal only ends one part of the company's legal disputes - it still faces a far larger claim for damages from the recording industry. US commentators say that since it acquired Napster earlier this year, the Bertelesmann media group has already spent over $100 million supporting the business.

FINDLAW PUBLISHES LATEST ANALYSIS OF SUPREME COURT RULINGS
The US online legal information service FindLaw is now carrying an analysis of criminal law and procedure rulings from the recently completed October 2000-01 US Supreme Court session. The review - which was written by legal commentator Solomon Wisenberg and can be found at http://sol.lp.findlaw.com - shows that predicting the direction of future rulings requires a detailed examination of the past.

According to Wisenberg, several of this term's rulings invalidated lower court decisions that flouted authoritative Supreme Court precedent. "Citing landmark cases, some 40 and 50 years old, this court vigorously upheld its own authority, reinforced judicial review in habeas corpus and immigration matters, maintained most Fourth and Fifth Amendment privileges, yet narrowed Sixth Amendment and ex post facto rights," he said. This is Wisenberg's third annual review of Supreme Court criminal law and procedure opinions for FindLaw. He has extensive experience in complex white-collar criminal jury trials and is a partner at Ross Dixon & Bell in Washington.