The Sixth National Youth Contest of Works on Information Technology and Intellectual Property IP&IT LAW 2021

The contest is organized by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and the IP CLUB under the auspices of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications.

The competition is supported by Russian and international organizations. Prizes and awards are established by the organizers and partners of the competition and include:

A special award sponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization for the top contender; a special award sponsored by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for the best paper on one of the first four topics; diplomas from the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications for finalists; a prize from the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia for the best paper on the relationship between antimonopoly regulation and intellectual property;

Other awards sponsored by competition partners include Russia’s Intellectual Property Court, the International and Comparative Law Research Center, the law firms Yegorov, Puginsky, Afanasiyev and Partners, and Kachkin & Partners, the ALRUD and Patentus companies, the law firms Semenov & Pevzner, Zartsyn and Partners, Statut Law School, the Garant legal information system, and the publishing house “Development of Legal Systems.”

The mission of the contest is to identify promising trends in legal support for the implementation and use of digital technologies, in the legal safeguard and protection of intellectual property rights in the digital environment, and legal assistance for e-business; to promote young people’s interest in legal matters related to the development of the digital economy; to stimulate research activity among students, graduate students and young professionals; and to attract state and public attention to the legal aspects of the digital economy.

In July 2018, the UN Secretary-General announced the creation of the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation to develop proposals on improving cooperation in the digital area between governments, the private sector, civil society, international organizations, research organizations, the engineering community and other interested parties. The panel finished their discussions and in June 2019 presented the concluding report, The Age of Digital Interdependence. The report comprises five sets of recommendations on how the international community could adopt joint measures to streamline digital technology and lower the risks:

1. Build an inclusive digital economy and society;
2. Develop human and institutional capacity;
3. Protect human rights and human agency;
4. Promote digital trust, security and stability;
5. Foster global digital cooperation.

In 2025, Russia will host the last IGF that will take place under the current mandate; the forum reform plan will be ready by that time.

Talking points:

• Why do we need global digital cooperation?
• Does the digital world share common values?
• Are there effective platforms where all countries can be heard?
• How can inclusive global internet governance be created within the G193 (UN) instead of other “Gs” such as the G7, G20 or G2 (China−US)?
• How can the risk of internet fragmentation affect global economic development?
• How can the risk of internet fragmentation affect global supply chains, social connections, scientific cooperation, and so on?
• What are the prospects for the implementation of the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation?

Under the Concept on Regulation of Relations in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics until 2024, increasing the independence of such systems, reducing human control over the process of use and the not quite transparent process of decision making have created public demand for regulatory restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence and robotic systems.

Thus, one of the conditions for introducing artificial intelligence in such areas as medicine, industry and transport is the need for a responsible approach to the development of AI. This approach will allow for outlining mechanisms to delegate process management to AI and minimize existing risks.

Ethics and artificial intelligence have become a key topic for discussion at various levels: national, international and sectoral. It is becoming increasingly obvious that this issue can be a cornerstone of soft law on regulating artificial intelligence systems.

Data sovereignty is the idea that data is subject to the laws and governance structures in the country in which it is collected. The concept of data sovereignty is closely linked to data security, cloud computing and technological sovereignty. It also includes data management at the macro-level: managing cross-border data flows in countries, that is, international data management. This new field comprises norms, principles and rules that regulate various types of data.

In 2010, the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ established the special award, Virtuti Interneti (For Service to the Internet), the only one of its kind on Runet. The award is presented to representatives from the internet community, businesses, scientists and government officials who made a significant contribution to the development of Runet and the global internet. The winner is selected by the program committee from the Russian Internet Governance Forum (RIGF). The awards ceremony and the subsequent speech by the winner have been a forum tradition.

Hosted by: Competence Center for Global IT Cooperation.

Digital platforms have become an integral part of our life. They provide numerous opportunities for public authorities, businesses and individual users, and are a powerful driver of economic growth. At the same time, the fast-growing role of transnational internet giants in economic and political processes poses a serious question about their responsibility toward the users and the state.

Equal competitive conditions must be created for domestic and foreign developers operating on the digital technologies and services market. Often, the companies operating in national jurisdictions are carrying an incomparably heftier tax and legal burden, whereas foreign corporations not only boast significant economic resources, but also get away with circumventing national legislation. This is the case in Russia, and this state of affairs negatively affects the domestic IT industry.

A situation where foreign companies evade taxes, fail to provide reporting and ignore court rulings is unacceptable for the state. Major players must be legalized in thenational legal field and have official offices in the host countries. This is a critically important step if we want to build an effective dialogue with them.

Talking points:

• How to create an environment of trust on online platforms and maximize the use of their capacity in the interests of digital transformation of the economy and for the benefit of individual users?
• What might mutually acceptable and fair national legislation for foreign digital platforms look like?
• How to enforce fair taxation of multinational internet companies and ensure their compliance with the competition rules?
• What common ground can be found in the approaches of Russia, foreign countries and integration associations to ensuring responsible market behavior of transnational internet companies?

Trust for IT products and services is gaining value amid the developing digital transformation. At the same time, it is not always possible to investigate the producer for compliance with basic security principles. The global community is looking for working cooperation mechanisms between states, IT communities, manufacturers and researchers to develop norms, standards and rules that can regulate this sector.

States should develop and implement measures to promote the role of the private sector and civil society in improving security when using ICT and the security of ICT, including the entire cycle from production to sale. It is necessary to develop open cooperation between all parties, including governments, international organizations, enterprises, IT communities and research institutes as the main stakeholders, and to use a wide range of instruments such as laws and rules, social responsibility, ethics, oversight and self-discipline, as well as norms and standards.

Topics for discussion:

• The basic principles of securing supply chains
• How can security for digital products be improved?
• Detecting vulnerabilities and responsible management: how to promote/improve the attractiveness of the idea of the coordinated detection of vulnerabilities?
• How can public policies help?
• What are the limits of businesses’ responsibility when responding to digital threats?
  
  

The past four years have seen unprecedented growth in the number of accusations of interfering in the work of government agencies, democratic institutions, major companies and critical infrastructure all over the world by Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Iranian and other hackers. At the same time, such accusations (or the media reports) often lack evidence and are based only on the IP addresses of the alleged cybercriminals or the VPN gateways they use in a certain language.

Topics for discussion:

• The image of the enemy. Is attribution a technical of geopolitical issue?
• Is univocal identification of cybercriminals possible on the internet?
• Highly Likely: Approaches to attributing cyberattacks (CAM, CAR, Q Model, WOMBAT, etc.)
• What technical methods, in addition to IP and DNS addresses, autonomous systems or time zone, are used in attributing cyberattacks?
• False Flag: Disguising as other hacker groups. Real cases
• Felix Edmundovich: Should a cyber investigator be a linguist?
• Various jurisdictions: What are the difficulties in interstate interaction between law enforcement agencies when investigating cybercrimes?
• How can attributing cyberattacks be improved?
  
  

All internet platforms censor the content and occasionally delete information posted by users and block their accounts. The reasons for such actions are hidden in the depths of user agreements which are not always available in the Russian language (even when an internet platform is oriented towards a Russian-speaking audience and posts advertising in Russian). The user agreement is a civil agreement, subject, as a rule, to foreign law and in most cases not covered by legislation on protecting consumer rights (because the user does not pay directly under the contract).

How can the interests of users be protected under these conditions? Would a national law be enough or is there a need for an international agreement? How can internet platforms be forced to comply with a national or international act?

Topics for discussion:

• Overcoming the inequality of the legal status of the internet platform and the user that all user agreements come with
• Jurisdiction issues: defining the condition where relations between the user and internet platform can be subject to Russian law
• Foreign experience: attempts to introduce regulatory control over the content of user agreements and separate issues (amid scandals with blocking the accounts of public figures)
• Issues of content regulation in light of user agreement terms (grounds for account blocking, detecting illegal information and fraud, etc.)
  
  

Representatives from the Youth Session will present statements that were prepared during the session.

Participants in the Youth Forum in Skolkovo will also present reports on the forum and its results.

Question and answer session with audience members, speakers and organizers.