Archive for the ‘ copyright ’ Category

Casenote: Telstra Corp Ltd v Phone Directories Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 44

Kylie Pappalardo has an excellent case note on Telstra Corp Ltd v Phone Directories Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 44 (Full decision). This case continues the process that began when the High Court tightened the requirements of originality and authorship in IceTV, applying that logic to contain the previous FCAFC authority of Telstra v Desktop Marketing [ READ MORE ]

ACTA internet chapter leaked

[ reposted from EFA ] Michael Geist is reporting that the text of the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) chapter on internet enforcement has been leaked. As suspected, the text is unlikely to require major changes to Australian law, but it does do two very concerning things: Increased pressure on intermediaries (ISPs) to monitor and police their [ READ MORE ]

Big news: Fed Court of Australia rules no copyright in telephone directories

Warwick Rothnie is reporting that the Federal Court has declined to follow Desktop Marketing (which held that telephone directories were protected by copyright in 2002) in light of the High Court’s decision in IceTV (which held that copyright was not infringed by taking time and title information from a timetable). Decision is here: Telstra v [ READ MORE ]

iiNet: What of the safe harbours?

Justice Cowdroy’s decision in Roadshow v iiNet held that a person who provides facilities that are used for infringement but does not play a more active part — for example by intentionally designing the system to profit, or providing facilities in circumstances where there are only limited non-infringing uses, or explicitly inviting or promoting the [ READ MORE ]

The ‘means’ of infringement: tracing a line through Moorhouse, Tape Manufacturers, Cooper, and Kazaa (via Sony)

The ‘means’ of infringement: tracing a line through Moorhouse, Tape Manufacturers, Cooper, and Kazaa (via Sony) The iiNet judgment traces an interesting line through authorisation liability in the context of technology cases. Cowdroy reads the technology authorisation cases (Moorhouse, Australian Tape Manufacturers, Cooper, and Kazaa) as predicating liability firstly upon whether the defendant has provided the [ READ MORE ]

iiNet did not ‘authorise’; providing internet access is not providing the ‘means’ of infringement’; safe harbours are effective

[ edit: full decision is now available: Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Limited (No. 3) [2010] FCA 24. More commentary to come. ] More analysis on iiNet, after I have seen the written summary of the judgment. Justice Cowdroy found that iiNet did not ‘authorise’ the infringements of its users. In coming to this conclusion, [ READ MORE ]

Next round of ACTA negotiations, Mexico: still no transparency in sight

[ reposted from EFA ] The next round of negotiations on the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) are due to begin this week in Guadalajara, Mexico. On the agenda this week are civil copyright measures, border measures, internet enforcement measures, and, very briefly, the issue of the lack of transparency in the negotiations. While much of [ READ MORE ]

MyTVR launches; but is it legal?

MyTVR have now launched their Australian service, which allows Australians to schedule free-to-air television programmes to be recorded by the company and stream the recording to their home PCs or mobile devices. The interesting question is whether MyTVR’s service is legal for Australians to use (and, of course, legal for MyTVR to offer) under Australian copyright [ READ MORE ]

ZDNet Twisted Wire interview

This week I was interviewed by Phil Dobbie for ZDNet's Twisted Wire program. Also interviewed were Peter Coroneos from the Internet Industry Association and Adrianne Pecotic from AFACT. You can listen to the podcast (direct link (mp3)). One thing I found disturbing about this interview was AFACT's suggestion that the law was clear and that iiNet [ READ MORE ]

GFDL v1.3 released; wikipedia can relicense, should hurry

In December 2007, the Wikimedia Foundation passed a resolution requesting that the Free Software Foundation modify the terms of the GFDL so that it could relicense to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (US) licence. The FSF released version 1.3 of the GFDL on 03 November 2008. This is pretty big news. Wikipedia was founded before the Creative [ READ MORE ]

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Nicolas Suzor's personal blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.