However, this virtual world can sometimes feel like a “no man’s land” where everything and nothing are equally valid and where few people know the legal scope and consequences that a bad sentence (or a bad day) can bring.
The main problem with these issues is none other than the difficulty of each country to determine its own legal margins . The Internet is a clear example, since being a world heritage site, a large number of barriers and entry points for actions come into conflict that may be legal in one country, but illegal in another.
Today we will explain the legal aspects that we must consider when promoting our service on the Internet and correctly managing digital content, whether our own or someone else's.
Table of Contents
Protection of personal data
The limits of the LOPD
Copyright
Recognition of explicit copyright
Tools and recommendations
Protection of personal data
The LOPD is the main legal framework regarding data protection in Spain . It is the more than famous Organic Law 15/1999, of December 13, on the Protection of Personal Data, through general manager email lists which every company that works with a personal database of its clients must inform and receive the approval of all of them in order to operate and collect this information in accordance with the law.
The most common form of information is seen in questionnaires or in Newsletters, which are accompanied by a footer or acceptance box in which it is stated that your data will form or already form part of the company's file.
Although the data can only be used for the purpose that enables the described good, the situation becomes complicated when we use platforms outside our organization (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn...) where, in addition to our legal obligations, we must add those of the company providing the service .
The limits of the LOPD
The main limits that the LOPD sets for us as a company in these respects are the following:
Inform about the purpose of the use of the data.
Facilitate the exercise of data protection rights, such as access, rectification or cancellation of data.
Comply with the legal obligations of external platforms, i.e. make it clear that the data is collected on behalf of our company and not on behalf of the external platform used.
Leave the consent box unchecked.
Periodically review the processing of the data collected.
Ensuring the correct processing of data using cyber-secure means to prevent possible cyberattacks or theft.
Regarding the last point, in addition to using secure servers and protection against external attacks, we must protect ourselves from internal attacks, which are none other than our employees and contracted personnel who have access to the company's files.
To do this, it is most common and advisable to provide them with a copy of the points of the LOPD that affect business activity, adapted to the performance of their work, along with the employment contract.
Copyright
Is our own content, created entirely by us, public domain by virtue of its being posted on the Internet or is it automatically protected by intellectual property rights?
According to this extract from Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996, of April 12, approving the Revised Text of the Intellectual Property Law (LPI):
“The intellectual property of a literary, artistic or scientific work belongs to the author by the sole fact of its creation.”
In this way, unless we state otherwise, no one can misappropriate our creations , and the management and timely treatment of each one of them remains in our hands.
This piece of legislation also clarifies another question that causes doubt among creators of content on the Internet: should I register my work in the intellectual property registry? The answer is no.
Recognition of explicit copyright
We are talking about the legal and non-legal symbology that indicates the degree of protection of the work . These are the famous Copyright, Copyleft and Creative Commons:
COPYRIGHT : All exploitation rights are reserved, so for its dissemination or use we must ask permission and receive it explicitly from the author.
COPYLEFT : Without legal recognition, each author under this symbol is responsible for indicating this through an explanatory text. Without this text, the work can be distributed and used as long as the source that produced it is mentioned. It also allows its modification, but in this case it maintains the original authorship.
CREATIVE COMMONS: Through this recognition, the author can freely decide whether his work is in the public domain, whether it can be used for commercial or non-commercial purposes, whether it can be modified or whether the authorship must be maintained.
