A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
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Mr Kim Dotcom Arrested - No Need for SOPA?
See SMH and NZ Herald.
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that the arrests set "a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?""
Is it true that the president of Activation visiting Mr Dotcom this month, before his arrest? Why has it not been reported that members of the Black Eyed Peas were in Mr Dotcom's home when he was arrested, and have attended some of the NZ court proceedings?
Jurisdiction: Penguin v. American Buddha
Google Copyright Settlement Rejected
Yesterday, Judge Denny Chin of the District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected the proposed settlement in The Authors Guild v. Google Inc. in relation to Google digitizing books. The judge stated: "The question presented is whether the [Amended Settlement Agreement (the “ASA”)] is fair, adequate, and reasonable. I conclude that it is not.
While the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many, the ASA would simply go too far. It would permit this class action – which was brought against [Google] to challenge its scanning of books and display of “snippets” for on-line searching – to implement a forward-looking business arrangement that would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books without permission of the copyright owners. Indeed, the ASA would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engagin in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case."
Seizure of Domain Names
In February the US Department of Homeland Security used this new act to seize 83 internet domains. The seizure involved re directing the DNS of that domain to a banner as shown here. One domain in particular was channelsurfing.net, this web site hosted links to other sites which hosted copyrighted material. The site operator Brian McCarthy is now facing court for Criminal Infringement of a Copyright.
As a part of this DNS seizure the DNS hosting provider FreeDNS was disabled. This caused the approximately 84,000 customers of FreeDNS to be redirected to the DHS 'banner', some of whom were not related to the original seizure at all (eg RapGodFathers.com)."
Compare the Australian case of
Cooper v Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd [2006] FCAFC 187
See also
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20023918-93.html
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/dhscomplaint/?source=front
Copyright in databases
iiNet copyright case - Full Federal Court Appeal Decision
No Copyright In This Headline
Software Licensing
Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo
Facebook, MySpace Messages Are Protected: Judge
A district judge has reversed a magistrate judge's ruling that fashion house Christian Audigier Inc. can subpoena the Facebook Inc. and MySpace Inc. communications of an artist who sued the designer for copyright infringement, finding that messages on the social networking sites are protected information.
Yahoo, Facebook Back Google In YouTube IP Case
Facebook Inc., eBay Inc., IAC/InterActiveCorp and Yahoo Inc. have urged a federal judge to rule against Viacom International Inc. in its copyright lawsuit against Google Inc. over video-sharing website YouTube Inc., arguing that a victory for Viacom in the case would hurt online commerce.
Copyright class
Berne Convention
Australian Copyright Council
Copyright Act
There have been a number of interesting Australian cases dealing with copyright infringement, see for example:
Kazaa
MP3s4free
Stevens v Sony
The iiNet case will be discussed in detail in the Liability of ISPs lecture.
We will also discuss how other countries treat piracy:
US - Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and the case of Napster
UK - Ditigal Economy Bill, and the recent case of Newzbin
Hot News
"Breathing some new life into the “hot news” doctrine, Judge Cote of the Southern District of New York recently issued a permanent injunction requiring the Internet-based financial news site TheFlyOnTheWall.com (Fly) to delay its reporting of stock recommendations from Wall Street research analysts. ..."
Google and Copyright
Viacom and Google broke their silence Thursday in their legal battle, as Viacom claimed that Google's YouTube unit had sought to exploit copyrighted works for profit, while Google argued that Viacom itself had secretly uploaded copyrighted clips it later demanded YouTube remove. The claims are among the many divulged as a federal judge and the parties to the case released a slew of documents.
Copyright in Directories
Telstra Corporation Limited v Phone Directories Company Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 44 (8 February 2010)
iiNet copyright case
Challenges for Google
In Europe, Challenges for Google
On issues like privacy, copyright protection and the dominance of its search engine, Google is increasingly clashing with lawmakers and regulators.
http://s.nyt.com/u/ejr
Google News
Have a look at the following:
Recent US Copyright Case
Similar result to IceTV in Australia?
How should damages be assessed for privacy and cybersecurity breaches
Listen to this podcast where I discuss how damages should be assessed in privacy and cybersecurity lawsuits. The Lawyers Weekly Show host J...
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The United Nations intellectual property agency (WIPO) is the latest front in the US-China trade war. http://www.theage.com.au/world/sad-am...
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The issue of content regulation in China was mentioned in this blog last year . In the last few weeks, this issue has once again pushed into...
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Finally, what is called direct registration of domain names is coming to Australia. See https://www.auda.org.au/statement/australias-interne...