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Information law is the law relating to the production,
marketing, distribution and use of information goods and services. Information
law comprises a wide set of legal issues at the crossroads of intellectual
property, media law, telecommunications law, freedom of expression and right
to privacy.
The essence of the information law paradigm, which is
directly reflected in the Institute’s
research programme, is that formerly distinct issues (e.g. private law-based rules on intellectual
property law and public law-based rules on media and telecommunications) are intricately
connected and interrelated. Information law is a normative concept, which
means that it is to contribute to a normative framework for a well balanced
organization of the information society. The field of information law is
interdisciplinary by nature and cuts across traditional legal boundaries.
IViR's research programme specifies a number of
research areas (for further information about the individual subject areas see
the research programme). Information law is not perceived and studied in
isolation, but situated in the broader context of societal, cultural, economic
and regulatory perspectives of the information society.
Although many current questions in information law are directly
related to and influenced by technological developments, in particular by
advances in the field of information and communications technology (ICT),
the paradigm of information law is essentially technology-neutral’,
i.e. not confined to any particular type of information technology.
The advent of the Information Society, symbolised by the now omnipresent
Internet, has put the field of information law squarely on the map.
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