The Institute for Information, Telecommunication and Media Law or ITM () is a research and educational organisation located in

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. All major research projects conducted by ITM are ordered by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. The institute's scientific council is made up of Prof. Dr. , Wilhelm Berneke,

Jon Bing Jon Bing (30 April 1944 – 14 January 2014) was a Norwegian writer and law professor at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law (NRCCL), and the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. Bing was considered a pioneer in internation ...

, Santiago Cavanillas, , , , Bernt Hugenholtz, , ,

Miriam Meckel Miriam Meckel (born 18 July 1967) is a German journalist and professor for Corporate Communication, editor and publisher of the German magazine ''Wirtschaftswoche'' and Director of the Institute for Media and Communication Management at the Uni ...

, Ernst-Joachim Mestmäcker, and other prominent scientists.

Research objective

The Institute for Information, Telecommunication and Media Law (ITM) aims to explore the legal framework conditions of

information society An information society is a society or subculture where the usage, Content creation, creation, information distribution, distribution, manipulation and information integration, integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drive ...

. To learn from the experiences of other countries,

comparative law Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law and legal systems of different countries. More specifically, it involves the study of the different legal systems (or "families") in existence around the world, includ ...

is granted a special position. Furthermore, the institute's tasks consist of the representation of information, telecommunication and media law in academics and further training. Its members focus on possible applications for interactive media in academic teaching and further legal information topics. Information, telecommunication and media law is a multidisciplinary matter which cannot even approximately be covered by any of the traditional legal disciplines –

civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

and

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...

. The ITM therefore strives for

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

research and teaching activities. For that reason the board of directors contains professors for civil law, criminal law and public law. This institutional structure is the only of its kind in Germany.

Area of researches

Information law

Information law deals with legal problems arising from

electronic data processing Electronic data processing (EDP) or business information processing can refer to the use of automated methods to process commercial data. Typically, this uses relatively simple, repetitive activities to process large volumes of similar information ...

(EDP). Whereas formerly goods and services were the main focus, today intangible assets like

know-how Procedural knowledge (also known as know-how, knowing-how, and sometimes referred to as practical knowledge, imperative knowledge, or performative knowledge) is the knowledge exercised in the performance of some task. Unlike descriptive knowledge ...

data collection Data collection or data gathering is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. Data collection is a research com ...

s, experience and ideas have gained increasing economic importance. ''Information society'' is a term used to describe the modern world, where images, texts and sounds are linked digitally. Despite the significance data has gained in society, its legal classification is still open. Most notably in terms of civil law, there are great difficulties in determining who certain data belongs to as well as in defining the individual rights involved in that ownership. These issues constitute the primary concern of the department's research activities.

Telecommunication law

Research is especially required in the following fields: * The right of way in terms of para. 50 and 57 TKG (German Telecommunications Act) * Telecommunications business and

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

* Competition and

anti-trust law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

Media law

Media law Entertainment law, also known as media law, encompasses legal services provided to the entertainment industry. These services often overlap with intellectual property law, which includes key components such as trademarks, copyright, and the right o ...

comprises film and music law, more precisely legal issues regarding the creation and utilisation of films and music. Particular emphasis is put on copyright aspects and legal problems in film and music distribution.

Informatics in the legal profession

This area deals with changes in the legal professions (e.g. judges, lawyers in the private sector and those in

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

) due to the use of electronic data processing.

Scientific activities

Current research projects

* CONSENT (Consumer sentiment regarding privacy on user generated content services in the digital economy) is a medium-scale research project promoted by the Commission of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. 19 partners from 13 European countries, including interdisciplinary institutes, research centres, universities and

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

s, are participating in this project. ''CONSENT'' aims to examine consumer sentiment regarding privacy on

user-generated content User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), emerged from the rise of web services which allow a system's User (computing), users to create Content (media), content, such as images, videos, audio, text, testi ...

(UGC) services such as

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

in the digital economy. This project seeks to examine how

consumer behaviour Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organisations and all activities associated with the Purchasing, purchase, Utility, use and disposal of goods and services. It encompasses how the consumer's emotions, Attitude (psy ...

and commercial practices are changing the role of consent in the processing of personal data and whether recent changes to consumer and commercial practices lead to consumers (in)voluntarily signing away their fundamental

right to privacy The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 185 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. Since the globa ...

. CONSENT's multidisciplinary team intends to carry out a status quo analysis of commercial practices, legal positions and consumer attitudes, identifying criteria for fairness and

best practices A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to alternatives because it tends to produce superior results. Best practices are used to achieve quality as an alternative to mandatory standards. Best practice ...

, and then create a toolkit for

policy-makers Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an orga ...

and corporate counsel which will enable them to address problems identified in the analysis. CONSENT began in May 2010 and ended in April 2012. * LAPSI (Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information) is a research project promoted by the

and deals with the legal problems regarding

public sector information Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information, known as the PSI Directive,
...

. 20 partners from 13 European countries are participating in this project. The main aim is to identify and discuss legal barriers to access and re-use of public sector information in the digital environment and suggest ways to overcome them. Additionally, the LAPSI project intends to build a network apt to become the main European point of reference for high-level policy discussions and strategic action on all legal issues related to the access to and the re-use of public sector information in the digital environment. The LAPSI project will have a duration of 30 months. * E-Learning: The competence centre for

e-learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning and teaching. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech" ...

is part of the

European Research Center for Information Systems The ERCIS – European Research Center for Information Systems is an international research network of universities and research institutions that deals with issues related to Digital Transformation, Information Systems, and Organizational Design. ...

(ERCIS) of the

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

. It is funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research with a focus on new media and education. The aim of this project is the development of a technology-driven model for organizing the promotion and integration of e-learning projects at universities. The Civil Law Department is in charge of the legal aspects of e-learning issue. The ITM's focus is mainly on problems regarding data protection and copyright in the field of teaching at universities. * History of information law: The project is sponsored by the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bud ...

(DFG) and constitutes a scientific attempt to reveal the origin and evolution of the field of law known as information law. From the very beginning of the use of electronic data processing by the public administration and the business community, many legal problems have emerged and have had to be solved. The question to be answered is whether ''information law'' is simply a generic term describing a loose selection of topics dealing with the legal review of problems concerning information, or if there is a common theoretical foundation to constitute a legal discipline of its own. Analysis is concentrated on the development of

privacy protection Privacy engineering is an emerging field of engineering which aims to provide methodologies, tools, and techniques to ensure systems provide acceptable levels of privacy. Its focus lies in organizing and assessing methods to identify and tackle priv ...

, freedom of information,

legal informatics Legal informatics is an area within information science. The American Library Association defines informatics as "the study of the structure and properties of information, as well as the application of technology to the organization, storage, r ...

and IT law. Besides the review of significant publications and court decisions, the project also involves interviewing prominent jurists who worked in the field of information law early on. * Law & ICT Shared Virtual Campus: The ITM is a member of the Law & ICT Shared Virtual Campus, a project of the LEFIS networks. The project aims to offer online courses towards different degrees. The project is led by Fernando Galindo of the

University of Zaragoza The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon (Spain). Founded in 1542, it is one of the List of oldest u ...

. * Matters of Law in the German Research Network (DFN): The German Research Network (DFN) supports communication and the exchange of information or data between representatives of science, research, education and culture in national and international networks. In this context, the DFN also operates as an online provider. With reference to legal questions of liability, telecommunications and data protection, DFN members are faced with increasing problems. As recent dispensation on liability of providers and the new German multimedia acts could not resolve the legal uncertainty in this area, practical and efficient assistance is required. Therefore, the ITM functions as a legal consultant in terms of information and communication services. * Research Centre for Industrial Property Rights:

Industrial property rights Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

play a significant role in many economic sectors. An effective legal protection of inventions and technical advances is an unalterable condition for a working political economy. A business owner would quickly lose their advantage if industrial property rights did not exist. Many law graduates are faced with an increasing demand for skills in the field, though hardly any curriculum covers this branch of law. Since its establishment in 1998, the Research Centre for Industrial Property Rights has aimed to supply this need by offering additional training besides its research activities in this sector.

Completed research projects

* ECLIP (Electronic Commerce Legal Issues Platform): The ITM was coordinating partner of this major research project initiated by the Commission of the EU. In cooperation with four other research institutes in Belgium, Great Britain, Norway and Spain, questions of law with reference to

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

were investigated from 1998 to 2000. The ITM's contribution focussed on legal aspects of copyright and taxation. Besides their extensive cross-border research activities, the ECLIP partners assisted other EU projects with legal advice on technical or economic matters of e-commerce. Furthermore, ECLIP aimed at enriching the scientific debate and raising general consciousness concerning legal issues of e-commerce. For this reason, the project partners organised specific workshops, participated in international conferences and published many works on this topic. * Interactive Media (PISA): This project was founded by the federal state of

and aimed at the creation of an interactive teaching system on

immovable property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, refers to parcels of land and any associated structures which are the property of a person. For a structure (also called an impro ...

law (''PISA'' stands for a practical approach to immovable property law). Students are enabled to deepen and practice their knowledge through the use of personal computers. Within the scope of these do-it-yourself studies, the students themselves control the time, place and speed of the learning process. The concept of the programme is based on new findings in

educational psychology Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive psychology, cognitive and behavioral psychology, behavioral perspectives, allows researc ...

. Another objective was the development of general standards for a legal learning software program (EuLe) which could be used in education. * MOF project (Moderated online case study on business economics and private law): The MOF project aimed at the development of a modular system for the moderation of interactive case studies on the internet. Then the system was applied to case studies in particular disciplines and also on an interdisciplinary level. * ZAP Project: The project dealt with electronic presentation of legal information. As a main target, even jurists who have only limited knowledge of EDP should be enabled to find the relevant information without great difficulty. New technologies like the internet and the possibilities of e-commerce were in the forefront of the project. * IPR-HD (The IPR Helpdesk) is a European network consisting of several research institutes, law firms and consultancies. The project is promoted by the Commission of the EU and aims at supporting the use and commercialization of intellectual property rights by SMEs (small and medium-sized entities) and research institutes, particularly on a European level. The work includes, for example, assistance in finding advisory boards for registration, protection and utilization of

copyrights A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

and

trademarks A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from ot ...

. The IPR-HD uses various tools including websites, newsletters, CD-ROMs, a helpline, seminars and workshops. The project is headed by the

University of Alicante The University of Alicante (, ; , ; also known by the acronym ''UA'') was established in 1979 on the basis of the Center for University Studies (CEU), which was founded in 1968. The university main campus is located in San Vicente del Raspeig/San ...

(Spain) and the Global Europe Consulting Group (Brussels). The ITM serves as a content provider for the German-speaking region. Further partners in the field of science are the in Namur, Belgium, the Institute of Commercial Protection of Law at the University of Alicante and the

Centre for Commercial Law Studies Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Today, ...

in London. * RESPECTOfficial Website of the ''RESPECT'' project
/ref> is another project initiated by the Commission of the EU. Within the scope of the

Information Society Technologies Information is an abstract concept that refers to something which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the interpretation (perhaps formally) of that which may be sensed, or their abstractions. Any natur ...

(IST) programme, RESPECT is an interdisciplinary cooperation of several institutes in Great Britain, Belgium, Hungary, Austria and Germany. The project aims to draw up a set of professional and ethical rules for socio-economic research within the EU. As the German partner, the ITM is developing guidelines for the use of intellectual property in compliance with copyright provisions of the

member states A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign states ...

. For this, great emphasis is put on recent EU copyright directives and changes in national laws.

External links

List of publications

References

{{authority control 1997 establishments in Germany Educational institutions established in 1997 Information schools Law schools in Germany Research institutes established in 1997 Research institutes in North Rhine-Westphalia University of Münster