Projects
Activities
Alexandra Giannopoulou
Alexandra Giannopoulou is a postdoctoral researcher at the Blockchain and Society Policy Lab at the Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam. She is an associate researcher at the ISCC within the research group Information and Commons Governance and she has also worked as a research fellow at Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in Berlin. Alexandra Giannopoulou is a graduate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and of the University of Paris West Nanterre La Defense. She holds a PhD from the Center for Legal and Economic Studies of Multimedia (CEJEM) at the University of Paris II Pantheon-Assas, which was presented on December 2016. Her PhD thesis entitled "The Creative Commons licenses" and supervised by Professor Jérôme Huet evaluates the legal status of the Creative Commons licenses on an international, European and national scale and assesses the effects of Creative Commons (as a transnational copyright management system) to reforms of the current normative framework. During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting researcher at Stanford Law School supervised by Professor Paul Goldstein (2012) and a junior lecturer (ATER) at the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense (2014-2016).
Publications
| Bodó, B., Giannopoulou, A., Mezei, P., Quintais, J. The rise of NFTs: These aren't the droids you're looking for In: European Intellectual Property Review, 2022. @article{nokey,Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are hailed as revolutionary tools that will empower artists and revolutionize copyright management and remuneration. This article explores their copyright relevance, and it describes how copyright might apply in relation to NFT creation and trading. In doing so, it provides an overview of the ecosystem of actors built around NFTs, and it analyzes the role of these actors according to the European copyright normative framework. |
| Giannopoulou, A. Putting Data Protection by Design on the Blockchain In: European Data Protection Law Review, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 388-399, 2021. @article{Giannopoulou2021,The principle of data protection by design, as it is enshrined in article 25 of the GDPR, is difficult to apply in blockchains. This article will assess how the reliance on asymmetric encryption and other privacy enhancing technological architectures -necessary in a blockchain-based system- approach both user control and data protection by design compliance from the single scope of anonymization and unlinkability. Data subjects’ rights, accountability, and the potential shortcomings of applied technological constraints are thus sidelined. Ultimately, this limited understanding of technological privacy, acts as a misguiding set of principles for technological co-regulation through standardisation in blockchains. The standardization of these choices without a holistic analysis of data protection by design imperatives could ultimately weaken the position of data subjects, whose trust in the technological protections of personal data might prove to be relatively misplaced. |
| Bodó, B., Giannopoulou, A., Irion, K., Janssen, H. In: Internet Policy Review, vol. 10, no. 3, 2021. @article{Bod\'{o}2021b,The technological infrastructures enabling the collection, processing, and trading of data have fuelled a rapid innovation of data governance models. We differentiate between macro, meso, and micro level models, which correspond to major political blocks; societal-, industry-, or community level systems, and individual approaches, respectively. We focus on meso-level models, which coalesce around: (1) organisations prioritising their own interests over interests of other stakeholders; (2) organisations offering technological and legal tools aiming to empower individuals; (3) community-based data intermediaries fostering collective rights and interests. In this article we assess these meso-level models, and discuss their interaction with the macro-level legal frameworks that have evolved in the US, the EU, and China. The legal landscape has largely remained inconsistent and fragmented, with enforcement struggling to keep up with the latest developments. We argue, first, that the success of meso-logics is largely defined by global economic competition, and, second, that these meso-logics may potentially put the EU’s macro-level framework with its mixed internal market and fundamental rights-oriented model under pressure. We conclude that, given the relative absence of a strong macro level-framework and an intensive competition of governance models at meso-level, it may be challenging to avoid compromises to the European macro framework. |
| Bodó, B., Giannopoulou, A., Mezei, P., Quintais, J. The Rise of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Role of Copyright Law – Part II Kluwer Copyright Blog 2021. @online{Quintais2021c, |
| Bodó, B., Giannopoulou, A., Mezei, P., Quintais, J. The Rise of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Role of Copyright Law – Part I Kluwer Copyright Blog 2021. @online{QuintaisetalNFTPartI, |
| Giannopoulou, A. Algorithmic systems: the consent is in the detail? In: Internet Policy Review, vol. 9, no. 1, 2020. @article{Giannopoulou2020,Applications of algorithmically informed decisions are becoming entrenched in society, with data processing being their main process and ingredient. While these applications are progressively gaining momentum, established data protection and privacy rules have struggled to incorporate the particularities of data-intensive information societies. It is a truism to point out the resulting misalignment between algorithmic processing of personal data and the data protection regulatory frameworks that strive for meaningful control over personal data. However, the challenges to the (traditional) role and concept of consent are particularly manifest. This article examines the transformation of consent models in order to assess how the concept and the applied models of consent can be reconciled in order to correspond not only to the current regulatory landscapes but also to the exponential growth of algorithmic processing technologies. This particularly pressing area of safeguarding a basic aspect of individual control over personal data in the algorithmic era is interlinked with practical implementations of consent in the technology used and with adopted interpretations of the concept of consent, the scope of application of personal data, as well as the obligations enshrined in them. What makes consent effective as a data protection tool and how can we maintain its previous glory within the current technological challenges? |
| Giannopoulou, A. Access and Reuse of Machine-Generated Data for Scientific Research In: Erasmus Law Review, no. 2, pp. 155-165, 2019. @article{Giannopoulou2019bb,Data driven innovation holds the potential in transforming current business and knowledge discovery models. For this reason, data sharing has become one of the central points of interest for the European Commission towards the creation of a Digital Single Market. The value of automatically generated data, which are collected by Internet-connected objects (IoT), is increasing: from smart houses to wearables, machine-generated data hold significant potential for growth, learning, and problem solving. Facilitating researchers in order to provide access to these types of data implies not only the articulation of existing legal obstacles and of proposed legal solutions but also the understanding of the incentives that motivate the sharing of the data in question. What are the legal tools that researchers can use to gain access and reuse rights in the context of their research? |
| Giannopoulou, A. The New Copyright Directive: Article 14 or when the Public Domain Enters the New Copyright Directive In: Kluwer Copyright Blog, 2019. @article{Giannopoulou2019b, |
| Bodó, B., Ferrari, V., Giannopoulou, A., Quintais, J. Blockchain and the Law: A Critical Evaluation In: Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law & Policy, vol. 2, no. 1, 2019. @article{Quintais2019b, |