The EU Data Retention Directive, 2006/24/EC is now being transposed by member states and in Ireland, "Communications (Retention of Data) Bill 2009" is just entering the report stage - the final stage before it is passed as an Act. ISPs will be expected to retain the specified data from the day it is signed into law.

Therein lies the problem. The "specified data" is not particularly well specified, it is being interpreted differently in different member states. The range of permitted retention periods and lack of clarity in what constitutes serious crime are just two of the issues that has resulted in confusion for ISPs and deharmonisation rather than the intended harmonisation - which has serious potential to distort the market and competition for Internet business across the EU. The Commission has had to set up an expert group to advise on "guidelines" for interpretation of the Directive.

Malcolm is one of the few industry representative on the expert group. He will share with you the key issues and options being considered. He will talk about the costs and the lack of consistent cost reimbursement across the EU. The Irish Government is unmoving in their selection of very rigorous requirements and insisting that there will be no cost reimbursement. This puts Irish ISPs and their customers at a competitive disadvantage to many other EU member states.

He also examines what the realities for ISPs - what happens when you get data requests? How can they be serviced so you don't fall foul of data protection and privacy laws? What are the time and cost implications for your business as the evidence you provide winds its way through the court system? And what about compensation for your time and effort?

Maybe because Belgium is also the seat of the European Union, it seems to attract more than its fair share of court action testing European Laws. The ISP business has not escaped this trend.

Isabelle will outline various Belgian cases which have had implications for ISP liability and the cost of providing our services to the public. She will also show how one of the biggest problems facing ISPs is the lack of understanding of legislators and the judiciary in understanding the way things work on the Internet. They are applying 19th and 20th centuary paradigms to 21st centuary realities.

She shows how a united industry front has assisted in lobbying government and that working in a concerted manner with the media has successfully influenced the outcome allowing ISPs to escape to fight another day.

ISPs work under the protection of "mere conduit" provided under the e-Commerce Directive 200/31/EC. However, this is coming under threat from many directions. Civil defamation proceedings is one such area as to often ISPs are wrongly viewed as being in a position to take action.

A new defamation Act came in to force on 1st January 2010. Absurdly this does not take into account modern developments of Web publishing and user modifiable content. As an ISP providing the services, or hosting or giving access to blogging sites, web forums, etc. what is your liability? How are ISPs to know whether some blog or posting is defamatory or true. If an ISP receives some form of notification, how do you know it is not malicious? If you remove content too hastily you may infact be defaming the originator and lining yourself up for a law suit.

Ronan will outline the law, the precedents that have been set elsewhere and how this is stacking up against ISPs. Ronan explores the exposure of ISPs caught between the "Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" of Defamation law.

Andrea examines how right-holders (particularly the recorded music companies) have been waging a war againast ISPS to protect their out-dated business models rather than changing to exploit the opportunites provided by the Internet. They have been spending fortunes lobbying at all levels to have laws changed and are pursuing court cases against ISPs rather than the infringers. They are now strongly lobbying for schemes that compensate for financial losses which they allege are due to downloading on the Internet but they play down other market trends of their own making impacting their revenues.

One such compensation scheme is to have governments place copyright levies on ISPs.

Andrea will discuss the diferent schemes from network interventions to revenue based taxes being considered in various countries and by the EU Institutions and the potential impact on an ISP's cost base.

Unfortunately every great technology is exploited by those with criminal intent. The Internet is no exception and cybercrime in all its forms is a growing problem. While ISPs are protected from culpability as "mere conduits" (though that has limitations of acting in a reasonable time once notified) there are growing expectations of actions industry should take to prevent misuse of the Internet in the areas of child exploitation, fraud, racism, and now radicalisation.

Paul will give an overview of the shared service ISPAI provides to its members through Hotline.ie to deal reactively with child pornography, in line with our obligations under the eCommerce Directive. This protects you and your business by dealing with such material in a manner agreed with Government and Garda. It takes away the need for your company to investigate and run the risk, not only of asking an employee (or yourself) to commit a criminal act - downloading child pornography, but of an employee traumatised by exposure to such material sueing you for damages.

He will then outline the current proposals being considered in the European Council and Commission and being promoted by various pressure groups which place severe liabilities and costs on ISPs. These are often based on misunderstandings of the existing reactive systems and threaten "mere conduit". However, the legislators are shying from offering protection of a legal framework and talk about "non-legislative" measures. What do these mean for ISPs?