Cédric Manara won a Google Research Award

Cédric Manara, professor of law, member of the LegalEDHEC Research Centre, specializes in legal issues related to the internet, intellectual property, and marketing.

Cédric, can you tell us about the award?

Google has a policy of supporting academic research. A prime component of this policy is the Google Research Awards, which were created to “identify and support world-class, full-time faculties pursuing research in areas of mutual interest”.
The Research Awards are traditionally granted to researchers working in the areas of IT security, information processing, man-machine interactions, etc… in other words, everything at the heart of the company. However, I received my award for work in the legal area.

What form does the award take in practice?

In practical terms, EDHEC is to receive research funding. This fits with our objectives of enhancing our academic credibility, internationalising our activities and strengthening our resources. As for the LegalEDHEC research centre in which I work, the award confirms that our activities are of interest to businesses, i.e. not just to Google, but also to Carrefour, Protiviti and others.
The particularity of the Google funding is that it is not tied to a classical research contract, but is awarded without anything being requested in exchange. I can continue to work with complete academic freedom on legal questions concerning the internet… something that I have been doing since well before Google was even founded!

How do you intend to use the funding?

I’ve identified four themes that affect changes in internet law in Europe. The first concerns internet access rights: several European countries are considering legislation that will allow websites to be filtered or blocked, or users’ subscriptions to be suspended. This will mean applying restrictions to the manner in which individuals conduct their “digital life”. However, there are other initiatives that go in a completely different direction; for example, Finland has introduced the “right to broadband”, which will allow individuals to take legal action against the government in the absence of suitable internet access. This maybe explains why I have just started my research while being based in Finland!

For more information: http://www.cedricmanara.com/