Luã Fergus Cruz

Author: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon According to McGregor Jr. et al. (1982), the term ‘utility’ refers to any service provided to people, either directly (by public sector institutions) or indirectly (by public or private companies). The term is associated with a social consensus, usually expressed in the legislation, that certain services must be available… Continue reading Utility

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon Self-injury or self-harm is often described as the act of purposely hurting physically or psychologically oneself as an emotional coping mechanism (Skegg, 2005; Daine et. al, 2013). These behaviors are not just suicidal-related, the practice of violent activities and challenges with a high risk to life and self-harm are… Continue reading Self Injury

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon Notice-and-takedown is a process to deal with potential infringing content based on the practice of sending an extrajudicial notification to the content provider and the immediate removal of the allegedly infringing content by the provider, without the need for a prior court order or the possibility of counter-notification, before… Continue reading Notice-and-Takedown

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon Notice is a term that refers to the disclosure to a particular stakeholder of a relevant fact or situation. To be deemed a valid notice, such disclosure should contain a sufficient level of detail for the recipient to understand that information revealed and investigate the facts or situation. There… Continue reading Notice

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon Must-carry legislation is one of the instruments used in the regulation of cable TV to promote diversity and ensure the broadcast of channels that would not normally be included in the operators’ bundle (Perry, n.d.). The must-carry rules appeared in 1965, in the face of the expansion of the… Continue reading Must-carry

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon This entry defines what an ‘intermediary’ is, while mainly referring to a dedicated entry on liability. In essence, intermediaries are entities providing services that enable internet communication between different users. There is a broad spectrum of actors labeled as internet intermediaries, such as internet service providers (ISPs), web hosting providers,… Continue reading Intermediary Liability

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon Infrastructure, according to the Cambridge Dictionary’s definition, is “the basic structure of an organization or system which is necessary for its operation”. More specifically, the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (2018) defines Internet infrastructure as follows: Internet infrastructure is the physical hardware, transmission media, and software used to interconnect computers and… Continue reading Infrastructure

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon There is no agreed definition of what human exploitation is; however, international law lists the types of illegal activities related to this practice. Elaborated in 2000, the Palermo Protocol, conceived within the United Nations, is the international legal instrument that deals with human trafficking (Allain, 2013). The Palermo Protocol… Continue reading Human Exploitation

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon ‘Device neutrality’ ensures the users’ right of non-discrimination in the services and apps they use, based on platform control by hardware companies (Hermes Center, 2017; ARCEP, 2018) . That means users can have the possibility to choose which operating system (software) or application they prefer to use, regardless of the brand of device… Continue reading Device Neutrality

Authors: Luã Fergus and Laila Lorenzon ‘Bot’ is a tech slang for ‘robot’. In this sense, they share the same conceptual core: a reprogrammable machine built to perform a variety of tasks (RIA, n.d.). In the specific case of online bots, they are labeled as automatic or semi-automatic computer programs that run over the Internet… Continue reading Bot