Journal of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (JIPIT)

Africa’s Ed-Tech Platforms: Protecting Children’s Right to Privacy

2022-11-20T21:41:06+03:00

Ed-tech platforms are used to create a more engaging, inclusive, and individualized learning experience. A number of these platforms utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI-enabled learning tools and approaches have revolutionized the global education sector (Pedro et al., 2019). They have been recognized for their contributions to enhancing the quality of learning and teaching. AI aids teachers and students in their lessons (Pedro et al., 2019). Additionally, AI has been lauded for its potential to boost students' knowledge and learning habits, while also creating a more personalized approach to learning (Pedro et al., 2019). Children are less likely to read or understand privacy policies, and they may have a limited understanding of their right to privacy and data protection. In addition, they are more susceptible to marketing techniques that adults can identify. The existence of their personal information online poses potential safety and security risks. Therefore, privacy policies on Ed-tech platforms must incorporate children's rights and an understanding of their right to privacy. This includes online protection and security measures established to protect children's data. The primary audience for this policy brief is corporations. Although, children’s rights to privacy are a collective responsibility of the parents, legal guardians, and other individuals legally responsible for the child. In the Ed-tech space, this responsibility extends to AI platform owners, who manage the platforms, and policymakers and regulators concerned with data protection and children’s rights.

Editorial

2022-09-27T05:17:11+03:00

Foreword

2022-09-27T05:24:06+03:00

Lessons for Nigeria: Determining Authorship and Inventorship of Artificial Intelligence Generated Works

2022-11-20T20:24:36+03:00

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained widespread momentum in today’s tech-savvy world. AI is now capable of creating copyright works and inventions without human intervention. Such AI-created works challenge the frontiers of intellectual property rights (IPR), particularly those on patents and copyright. The extant copyright and patent laws in Nigeria (Copyright Act, 1988, and Patent Act, 1970) were drafted when AI authorship and inventorship were not a primary consideration. The international legal framework on IPR has also not addressed this issue conclusively. Using a doctrinal method of legal research, this paper examines the challenge AI poses to authorship and inventorship under copyright and patent laws. It also takes a peek into advanced jurisdictions which have had the opportunity to address these issues, to draw lessons for Nigeria where a National Centre of AI and Robotics has recently been established and these issues are envisaged to arise as the Centre carries out its objectives. This paper finds that under the extant legal framework in Nigeria, an AI system cannot be designated as an author or inventor. Considering the advancement in AI technology, this will exclude AI-created works and inventions from intellectual property protection in Nigeria. While drawing lessons from other jurisdictions, this paper recommends a responsive regulation of AI technology through a legislative amendment that accommodates AI systems as authors or inventors with a presumption of law that allows ownership, rights, and liabilities to be borne by the owners of such systems.

Eliminating Safe Havens for Transnational Cybercrimes in the African Continental Free Trade Area

2022-11-20T20:27:33+03:00

The continuous advancement in technology makes cybercrimes effortlessly transnational. Existing literature reveals that the inadequacies of cybercrime-specific legislations, procedural powers, and enforceable mutual legal assistance provisions constitute jurisdictional challenges to the prosecution of transnational cybercrimes (TNCCs). This paper appraises the adequacy of legal responses to jurisdictional challenges of TNCCs in the African region, especially the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (the Malabo Convention). It argues that the presence of states without substantive or procedural laws on cybercrimes, or both, constitutes safe havens that challenge the effectiveness of such laws in states where they are present. It finds that the Malabo Convention has the potential to be a tool for eliminating safe havens in the African region and given the inter-connection between trade and TNCCs, it suggests that it could be made operational through its annexation as one of the protocols to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement. The author concludes that purely domestic legal responses to cybercrimes are inadequate and suggests a holistic approach through the operationalization of an effective regional instrument as a way to diminish safe havens for TNCCs in the African region.

Assessing the Interoperability of mLab and Ushauri mHealth Systems to Enhance Care for HIV/AIDS Patients in Kenya

2022-11-20T21:10:23+03:00

The core thesis of this study is to explore the legal and technological feasibility to interoperate two mobile health-based solutions in Kenya: Ushauri-Text for Adherence (T4A), and Mobile Laboratory (mLab), to enhance HIV/AIDS care and treatment. This paper focuses on two aspects namely data interoperability by analysing secondary data abstracted from the mLab and the Ushauri databases from June 2017 to June 2018 and doctrinal analysis of the legal and policy environment to support the interoperability. This paper is a case study of the mLab and the Ushauri systems in terms of the technological stack for interoperability which has some legal implications. It includes a pilot study that employed a multistage sampling method in which thirty-nine health facilities in Siaya, Homa bay, Nyeri, and Muranga were selected. Findings show a satisfactory legal environment to augment the interoperability of the two mHealth systems. It is also evident that the two systems were considerably interoperable in terms of technology, semantics, data, and processes. However, interoperating them could largely be compromised by language semantics leading to a discrepancy of characters and numbering in unique identifiers in data entry. Though data in the systems were for the same individuals, it is critical to note that there was a low level of concordance in patient identification numbers in the same facilities where the same patients were receiving clinical services. Additionally, healthcare workers across the various facilities did not follow the NASCOP (2010) eleven-digit unique identifier system. Standardizing human activities while using systems such as the allocation of patient identifiers and following laid down standards while developing systems are critical ways of ensuring interoperability. This paper highlights the need to achieve full-scale implementation of laid down policies and legal requirements such as the systems’ interoperability certification process to standardise the systems and make them interoperable.

Artist Resale Right: Should Botswana Codify?

2022-11-20T20:36:56+03:00

The Artist Resale Right (ARR) entitles a visual artist to a certain percentage of income generated from the resale of their artwork in the secondary market. Historically, resale royalty initiatives were motivated by a romantic notion that artists are so poor and in such a weak bargaining position that they deserve special legal protection. Arguments have since advanced from the notion of the ’starving artist’ to now citing the copyright protection deficiency that exists between the protection of multiple copy artists and visual artists. There has been advocacy from artists and politicians albeit not in collective voices for Botswana to codify ARR. This paper evaluates whether Botswana should provide for ARR in its laws and further guides lawmakers in considering such legislation. Specifically, this paper points out that many countries that have codified ARR have not implemented it. It attributes the lack of or delayed implementation of ARR to the information deficit, otherwise referred to as the asymmetry problem, that pervades the ARR practice. This asymmetry problem denies policymakers and other stakeholders a chance to establish the efficiency of ARR. The majority of arguments surveyed in this paper are at loggerheads, with each side raising strong valid points. This paper notes that the insignificant size of the Botswana art market is likely to eclipse the potential benefits promised by ARR. However, the authors conclude that Botswana should codify ARR based on the notion of redressing the copyright protection deficiency faced by visual artists as compared to other categories of copyright owners.

The Regulation of Deepfakes in Kenya

2022-11-20T20:59:53+03:00

‘Truth has become elusive.’ ‘We are entering into an age of information apocalypse.’ ‘Seeing is no longer believing unless you saw it live.’ These and similar statements characterise most discussions in the present highly digital age. With the borderless nature of the Internet, it is possible to share videos, photos, and information with countless people provided one has a reliable internet source and a smart gadget, for instance, a mobile phone. Technological advancements have also made it possible for tech-savvy individuals to compile computer programs that make it possible to swap faces and replace them with those of celebrities, politicians, et cetera. Yet even more sophisticated technology uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to create videos and photos that are not easily distinguishable from the real ones. ‘Deepfakes’ has become a buzzword. Along this line, this paper posits that there is widescale misinformation due to deepfakes and assesses the regulation of deepfakes in Kenya to curb the misinformation. It recommends pragmatic ways to train forensic experts and to create awareness among members of the public for detecting deepfakes, hence curbing their negative effects.