Final Project Report 

The Final Project Report covers the work carried out, results achieved and conclusions drawn by RightsWatch over the two years of the project. 

The most fundamental finding from the RightsWatch Project is that any self-regulatory regime within the context of NTD procedures cannot be truly effective without some form of legislative underpinning. The RightsWatch Project has demonstrated that with this it would be possible to resolve other issues and provide more certainty for all stakeholders concerned.  

Other conclusions drawn are as follows: 

• Any NTD procedure needs to deal with a wide variety of potential complaints and, in this context, must reconcile the conflicting objectives of the different stakeholders involved.
   
• The concept of a third party organisation should not be ignored, although there is no general consensus on the functions that could be undertaken by such a body.  Having said that, it is agreed that there is little benefit for a third party organisation simply as a post box for the receipt and delivery of notices and counter-notices.
   
• The benefits of procedures harmonised at international level are obvious given the cross-border nature of the Internet.  However, practical considerations of co-ordination and consensus point in the opposite direction.  A compromise approach may be viable, in other words, priority should be given to national initiatives with some co-ordination and information sharing at EU level.
   
• There is growing concern in some sectors about “citizens’ rights”; that civil liberties are being replaced by consumer rights and that judicial due process is being replaced by industry self-regulation.  There is a view that this in turn will compromise fair use and free speech.
   
• The technology research concluded that a considerable amount of effort would be required to provide interoperability across the different systems that might be employed in an automated NTD process.  Even then, some form of human subjective judgement would be  required in the process although technology could be deployed to assist those judgements.

Click here to download a copy of the Final Project Report. An edited version of the report is available in the form of the White Paper.

You will require Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these files. If you do not have this software it can be obtained free from: www.adobe.com