Anti-virus technology: filtering the legal issues
Leif Gamertsfelder Deacons
Anti-virus technology: filtering the legal issues
This presentation will explore the legal issues involved in developing and deploying
anti-virus technology. The first part of the paper will investigate the legal issues
concerning the development of anti-virus technologies. Issues of importance in this context
include the circumvention of technological protection measures in order to access an
application or file for the purposes of examining it for viruses. In some jurisdictions
such access could, perversely, amount to a technical breach of copyright law, contract law
or both. This paper will investigate whether this issue is of any real concern to the
industry. This investigation will then close with an examination of the issues relating
to the reverse engineering of applications or files once access is obtained.
The second part of the paper will examine the legal issues associated with the
deployment of anti-virus technologies, including interception, privacy and contractual
issues.
The paper will not focus on the laws of any specific jurisdiction, but rather illustrate
various points by reference to laws in a number of jurisdictions.
VB2009 will take place 23-25 September 2009 at the Crowne Plaza Geneva, Switzerland.
VB is currently seeking submissions from those wishing to present papers at VB2009. Full details are in the call for papers.