• Protection and Administration of Folklore in Nigeria
  Adebambo Adewopo, pp.1-10
• The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property – A Valuable Affair
  Johanna Gibson, pp.11-14

Special Feature

• Neither East Nor West, Is Mid-West Best?
  Roger Brownsword, pp.15-33
  This article is a follow-up on the paper entitled “Code, Control, and Choice: Why East is East and West is West”, published in Legal Studies in 2005. The current article was first presented at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh, in February 2006.

Peer-reviewed articles

•  Implementing Pseudonymity
  Miranda Mowbray, pp.34-44
  I will give an overview of some technologies that enable pseudonymity – allowing individuals to reveal or prove information about themselves to others without revealing their full identity. I will describe some functionalities relating to pseudonymity that can be implemented, and some that cannot. My intention is to present enough of the mathematics that underlies technology for pseudonymity to show that it is indeed possible to implement some functionalities that at first glance may appear impossible. In particular, I will show that several of the intended functions of the UK national ID could be provided in a pseudonymous fashion, allowing greater privacy. I will also outline some technology developed at HP Labs which ensures that users’ personal data is released only to software that has been checked to conform to their preferred privacy policies.
• Beyond Oil on Canvas: New Media and Presentation Formats Challenge International Copyright Law’s Ability to Protect the Interests of the Contemporary Artist
  Molly Ann Torsen, pp.45-70
  Current copyright laws in all jurisdictions are lacking explicit provisions for protecting many types of contemporary art. It remains unclear to what extent ideas should be copyrightable as art, if at all; or whether an artwork’s commercial nature provides a decisive factor regarding appropriation. Certain situations seem plainly inappropriate, such as artists needing to seek legal counsel in conjunction with creating their artwork: inappropriate in its financial extravagance and in its inevitable curb on creativity. As such, it is incumbent upon courts and legislatures to analyze the issue and to provide guidance. It is the author’s finding that strong moral rights and a vibrant public domain are not necessarily at odds with each other, especially when parties are open to communication. Laws operate to provide structure when parties do not make other arrangements amongst themselves; contracts between artists and galleries, artists and publishers, even artists and other artists may provide the highest degree of satisfaction for specific parties to a specific situation. Not surprisingly, parties with legal or business interests in art and parties with artistic interests in art would communicate better if they understood each other’s situations. Hopefully the issues will continue to be the focus of some thought on all platforms such that informed legal decisions can be made and artists can pursue and protect their creative productions, no matter their format.

Analysis

• Data Protection: Too Personal to protect?
  Mark J Taylor, pp.71-81
  This article analyses the application of data protection legislation to sensitive personal data, particularly to genetic data, and asks whether the present framework may be adequate to respond to the very sensitive issues involved.

Book Reviews

• Soft Law in Governance and Regulation: An Interdisciplinary Analysis
  Ulrika Mörth (ed)
  Reviewed by Catherine Lyall, pp.82-83
• Modern Intellectual Property Law
  Catherine Colston and Kirsty Middleton
  Reviewed by Joseph Savirimuthu, pp.84-85