Computers & Law Online

Computers & Law is the Society’s magazine available online, and in downloadable digital editions. To get full access to the content on this site plus the digital editions of C&L magazine, become an SCL member.

Amanda Chaboryk, Chris Cartmell, and Stephanie Baker, of PwC, raise some early considerations about the seemingly inevitable spread of agentic AI into legal departments IntroductionArtificial Intelligence (AI) has played an increasingly prominent role within legal, starting as early as the 90’s, when legal databases started incorporating natural language processing to optimise search and retrieval. Leaping…

Read More… from The (Speculative) Rise of AI Agents in Legal

We have teamed up with the LIDC (International League of Competition Law) to share a series of podcasts examining some of the increasingly pressing questions around cloud computing, AI and competition law. Over seven episodes, recorded in November 2024, Ben Evans, Shruti Hiremath and guests will look beyond the current position to identify some of the pressures…

Read More… from Exploring Competition in Cloud and AI Podcast: Episode 5: Dissecting AI Competition

James Humphrey-Evans and Nedko Nedev set out the corporate risk factors associated with communications networks, including those exposed by the recent Iberian outage. Along pavements and roads in major cities, you will cross over the groundworks and chambers used by telcos for the networks we all use, just as the utility networks bring power and…

Read More… from Telecoms, resilience and corporate governance risk and compliance

We have teamed up with the LIDC (International League of Competition Law) to share a series of podcasts examining some of the increasingly pressing questions around cloud computing, AI and competition law. Over seven episodes, recorded in November 2024, Ben Evans, Shruti Hiremath and guests will look beyond the current position to identify some of the pressures…

Read More… from Exploring Competition in Cloud and AI Podcast: Episode 4: The EU Data Act and Cloud Analogies

We have teamed up with the LIDC (International League of Competition Law) to share a series of podcasts examining some of the increasingly pressing questions around cloud computing, AI and competition law. Over seven episodes, recorded in November 2024, Ben Evans, Shruti Hiremath and guests will look beyond the current position to identify some of…

Read More… from Exploring Competition in Cloud and AI Podcast: Episode 3 – Dissecting Cloud Competition

The ICO is consulting on new guidance for smart products. It points out that from smart speakers and fitness trackers to Wi-Fi fridges and interconnected air fryers, smart products often collect large amounts of personal information from users, including sensitive information, so manufacturers and developers must ensure their products are designed with data protection in…

Read More… from ICO consults on guidance for consumer Internet of Things products and services

The Online Safety Act 2023 established the basis for creation of an online safety super-complaints regime. The process will allow for complaints about systemic issues (features or conduct of regulated services) to be raised with the regulator where those issues are, appear to be, or present a material risk of: For the online safety super-complaints…

Read More… from Super-complaints regime for online safety due to come into force on 31 December 2025

Ofcom has opened formal investigations into online discussion board 4chan and seven file-sharing services – Im.ge, Krakenfiles, Nippybox, Nippydrive, Nippyshare, Nippyspace and Yolobit.  Ofcom has not received responses to its statutory information requests, to which services are legally required to respond. It also says that it has received complaints about the potential for illegal content…

Read More… from Ofcom opens nine new investigations under Online Safety Act 2023

Chinese courts take a different approach to the issue of AI generating copyright protected images, the DLA Piper team reports. On 7 March 2025, the Changshu People’s Court (in China’s Jiangsu province) announced that it had recently concluded a case on the topical issue of whether AI-generated works can be protected by copyright. In the…

Read More… from Another Chinese court finds that AI-generated images can be protected by copyright: the Changshu People’s Court and the ‘half heart’ case

The High Court has ruled in the case of RTM v Bonne Terre Ltd and Another EWHC 111 (KB).  The claimant RTM described himself as a recovering online gambling addict. He was a private individual with no national profile. He was anonymised in the litigation because of the risk that the privacy interests he was…

Read More… from High Court rules on targeting advertising to “recovering online gambling addict”

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled in Case C‑394/23 Mousse v CNIL and SNCF that asking customers to state their gender title (Mr or Ms) when buying train tickets is not necessary for the contract and may violate GDPR rules, especially the principle of data minimisation. Mousse (a LGTB association) complained…

Read More… from GDPR and rail transport: gender identity is not necessary data for the purchase of a transport ticket

Mauricio Figueroa summarises the key points from the SCL AI Conference hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills on 8th October. Practitioners, lawmakers, academics, trainees, in-house lawyers, and civil society representatives gathered at Herbert Smith Freehills’ offices in London for the annual Society for Computers and Law AI conference. The event brought together experts to explore the…

Read More… from The SCL AI Conference: Key Takeaways

Victor Gurr, Trainee Solicitor, Gisby Harrison Solicitors was nominated to attend the recent SCL 50th Anniversary Conference on 10 October 2023 as a tech law “rising star”.  “Rising stars” are invited to record their impressions of the Conference in any form they choose (in previous years these have been event reports, infographs and even poems!). These…

Read More… from SCL 50th Anniversary Conference 2023 – Rising Star Impression

What separates humanity from technology? The sudden omniscience of ChatGPT in November 2022 has prompted a good deal of philosophising on that question with the apparent gap between the human and the machine growing ever less defined. There is as yet little common ground on where the boundary lies but one oft cited difference is…

Read More… from SCL 50th Anniversary Conference Event Report: “The Dragon Under the Sofa and other stories”

Speakers Anita Bapat (Kemp Little LLP) Tom O’Flynn (Google) James Evan (Verizon media) Alex Abrahams (DMGT) Karishma Brahmbhatt (Allen & Overy LLP) Event Overview With ad-tech a key focus for data protection authorities such as the ICO and CNIL, panellists James, Alex and Tom methodically described ad-tech infrastructure, and the various players involved within the…

Read More… from Key Takeaways from the SCL Privacy and DP Group Event: Ad Tech – Bring Everyone to the Table