**See my  book 'The Closing of the Net' **

My academic research is  interested in how we deal with the Internet at a political level in Europe.

Notice that I do not use the word 'regulate'. Officially, of course,  the Internet is an open communications system and is not regulated by governments.  However, the reality is that there are several ways that governments can impose controls and restrictions onto this apparently 'free' resource. The Internet is  an economic resource and as such there are many powerful interests who would like to control it and who seek to influence government policy. The law can be applied to the Internet and to those of us who use it.

I am  interested in how communications policy is made in the EU, and how the policy-making process  is or is not  adapting to a new media environment. I am also interested in  how the European approach contrasts with the way it has been handled elsewhere, especially in the United States.   In the course of my research, I have analysed the policy-making process in the EU legislature and in certain Member States such as Britain, France and Spain.  The cvorporate effort to shape policy forms the backdrop for all my books.

My latest book 'The Closing of the Net' deals with the power politics and lobbying of the Internet corporations.

I have written two other books. My first book, The Copyright Enforcement Enigma: Internet Politics and the 'Telecoms Package'  was  published by Palgrave Macmillan. The book tells you the full story of the Telecoms Package with exclusive  information  on the Third Reading. I believe it is the only comprehensive  academic account of the 2009 Telecoms Package and it remains relevant even in 2015 as the European Commission thinks about the next telecoms review. Read the reviews for yourself! My second book A Copyright Masquerade: How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms , was  based on  overmatter from my doctoral research. I felt that I had enough to write a second book. It proved to be more work than I had hoped, but was well worth the effort.

 My PhD  research began with by investigating European policy for the Internet and online content. In very simple terms, it concerned  the content - news,  pictures, TV programmes, movies,  music - that we get over the Internet - or indeed, that we put there ourselves.  And how companies and governments are arguing over what  we are - and are not - allowed to do with it. That led me to exmaine the European Commission's Creative Content Online consultation, which  addressed the hot debate over copyright enforcement measures known as graduated response or 3-strikes - and downloading of music and film. And from there, I discovered the copyright amendments in the Telecoms Package.

The  title of  my doctoral  thesis  was 'The Political Battle for Online Content in the European Union' which analysed the travaux preparatoire of the Telecoms Package for copyright issues.  In the course of my research, I spoke to policy-makers and industry stakeholders who lobbied in Brussels.   I spoke to  interests on both sides of this highly polarised debate.  I carried out my PhD research as a self-funded student, under the auspices of the University of Westminster.

I completed an MA with distinction in 2006, also at the University of Westminster. My Masters dissertation discussed the politics of the EU Data Retention directive (2006/24/EC). I will be drawing on this research for a chapter in my new book to be published in 2016.

Here are my research papers, published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences:

Political Quarterly (2008) File-sharing, Filtering and the Spectre of the Automated Censor

American University College of Law: Where Copyright Enforcement and Net Neutrality Collide

IDP 2011 Proceedings: Copyright at a Policy Cross-Roads

JIPITEC - The Digital Economy Act in the dock

Internet Policy Review - The Aereo dilemma and copyright<