A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
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Reading For Class
Read about Google and Ebay in the next series of posts. (There are earlier posts also referring to Google and Ebay.)
Make sure that you are familar with the Google and Ebay websites. Ebay also owns PayPal. (Some people thing that Paypal sucks.) Ebay has lots of information about Ebay on its site.
Ebay sells some weird stuff. Have a look here, and see the weird stuff category.
Also, if you have time, do a search on Google using the terms "google lawsuits" and "ebay lawsuits".
Recent Articles About Ebay
EBAY AND YAHOO FORM ADVERTISING ALLIANCE
Yahoo and eBay have reached a multi-year advertising and
commercial partnership aimed at boosting their position
against Web search leader Google. According to the deal,
Yahoo will be the exclusive third-party provider of all
graphic ads throughout eBay's auction site. Yahoo has also
chosen eBay's online payment system PayPal to allow its own
customers to pay for Yahoo Web services.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-media-yahoo-ebay.html
MORPHEUS MAKERS FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST EBAY
StreamCast Networks, the creators of the Morpheus
file-sharing software, is alleging in a lawsuit that auction
house eBay is profiting from peer-to-peer technology that
rightfully belongs to it. StreamCast claims in a lawsuit
filed Monday in the U.S. Central District Court in Los
Angeles that Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the duo who
developed the technology behind companies Kazaa and Skype,
of breaking an agreement to give StreamCast the first right
to purchase their FastTrack peer-to-peer protocol.
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6075933.html
SUPREME COURT ORDERS NEW HEARING FOR EBAY
The US Supreme Court has handed a victory to patent-reform
advocates, ruling that MercExchange was not automatically
entitled to a court order in a patent dispute with eBay. In
a closely watched case, the court unanimously ruled that
judges have flexibility in deciding whether to issue court
orders barring continued use of a technology after juries
find a patent violation. Decision at
http://laws.findlaw.com/us/000/05-130.html
Coverage at
http://tinyurl.com/s2q86
EBAY USER SENTENCED TO FIVE MONTHS IN JAIL FOR THREATS
A Romanian native unhappy with eBay Inc.'s business
practices was sentenced to five months in prison for making
e-mailed threats against two of the company's top officers.
Florin Horicianu also received five months of electronic
monitoring and was ordered to stay away from eBay employees
and events
http://tinyurl.com/ng8s7
UK INTRODUCES LAW TO BLOCK SOCCER TICKET SALES ON EBAY
FIFA IS set for a legal battle with eBay after the auction
site failed to halt the sale of unofficial World Cup tickets
on their website. The UK Government yesterday introduced a
change in the law governing the sale of tickets for the
World Cup not authorised by football's world governing body
Fifa. Under the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act
it was already an offence to sell tickets for any of
England's group matches at this summer's finals in Germany.
But yesterday's amendment widened the definition of a
designated match covered by the legislation making it
illegal to sell tickets for any World Cup games.
http://tinyurl.com/ggmcq
'WARCRAFT' MAKER SUED FOR BLOCKING SALES OF UNOFFICIAL GUIDE
Makers of the wildly popular "World of Warcraft" online game
now face a lawsuit from an eBay seller who claims he was
improperly barred from selling copies of his own unofficial
gaming guide. During several months beginning last August,
24-year-old Brian Kopp sold several hundred copies of his
guide, which contains tips on playing the game and
accumulating points, at roughly $15 apiece. Weeks after his
first auction went live, Blizzard, Vivendi, and the ESA
began sending repeated takedown notices under the DMCA,
asking eBay to yank the auctions because of copyright and
trademark infringement concerns.
http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-6053716.html
TOWN AUCTIONED ON EBAY UP FOR SALE AGAIN
The first town ever auctioned on eBay soon will be back up
for sale on the online auction site. Nearly two years after
he bought the tiny town of Bridgeville, Orange County
financial adviser Bruce Krall says he plans to re-auction
the Humboldt County hamlet on eBay next month.
<http://tinyurl.com/ftcq6>
POLICE OFFICER SELLS STOLEN VEHICLE ON EBAY
A police officer in Florida has been charged with selling a
car that he knew had been stolen over eBay to a man in North
Carolina. The Florida Highway Patrol was brought into this
by the Kissimmee Police Department because, when North
Carolina authorities called, officers realized the man they
were investigating was one of their own.
http://www.wftv.com/news/2544472/detail.html
Recent Articles About Google
An AP article reports on problems plaguing Google over its click-fraud settlement. Some companies say that Google is trying to short-change them and thousands of other
advertisers by offering refunds totalling $60 million to settle a lawsuit. The refunds, which will be provided in the form of advertising credits, are meant to compensate Google's customers for undetected click fraud, which contributed to the $13.3 billion in ad revenue that has poured into the company since 2001.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/14530012.htm
GOOGLE TO SHUT DOWN ORKUT COMMUNITIES AT BRAZIL'S REQUEST
Google has agreed to shut down some communities on its
popular Orkut social networking site because the Brazilian
government says they advocate violence and human rights
violations. In recent years, news reports have linked
drug-dealing operations and organized fights between soccer
fans to Orkut communities. One community allegedly advocated
killing the president and planting a bomb in Congress and
explained those thing might be done.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/14658299.htm
GOOGLE RETAINS LEAD IN U.S. SEARCH MARKET
Google's share of the US Web search market continues to edge
beyond Yahoo and Microsoft, according to the latest monthly
numbers released by analysis firm ComScore Networks. The
search giant's market share among home, work, and university
Internet users climbed from 42.7 percent to 43.1 percent
from March to April of this year, up from 36.5 percent in
April 2005.
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6074893.html
BEHIND THE GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH INITIATIVE
The NY Times Magazine ran a lengthy feature on the Google
Book Search program and the growing interest in scanning
millions of books, a move facilitated by technology and the
Internet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/magazine/14publishing.html
EX-GOOGLE ADVERTISER SUES TO BLOCK CLICK-FRAUD SETTLEMENT
A former Google Inc. advertiser sued Wednesday to block a
proposed $90 million class-action settlement, arguing the
amount grossly understates how much the online search engine
leader has benefited from a ruse known as ``click fraud.''
The complaint, filed by Joseph Kinney in Arkansas state
court, targets two small businesses -- Lane's Gifts &
Collectibles and Caufield Investigations -- leading a
class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of
merchants and entrepreneurs who have bought ads through
Google's search engine since 2001.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/14548096.htm
NY LAWMAKERS SUES GOOGLE OVER CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
A Long Island politician sued Google on Thursday claiming
the search engine leader is profiting from illegal child
pornography. Jeffrey Toback, a member of the Nassau County
Legislature, said Google has paid links to Web sites
containing pornography involving minors.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8HDB6DO2.htm
GOOGLE EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER BROWSER-SEARCH BUNDLING
With a $10 billion advertising market at stake, Google, the
fast-rising Internet star, is raising objections to the way
that it says Microsoft, the incumbent powerhouse of
computing, is wielding control over Internet searching in
its new Web browser. Google says it expressed concerns about
competition in the Web search business in recent talks with
the Justice Department and the European Commission, both of
which have brought previous antitrust actions against
Microsoft.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/technology/01google.html
FRENCH PRESIDENT UNVEILS PLAN TO CREATE GOOGLE RIVAL
The French president, Jacques Chirac, yesterday unveiled
what he hopes will be his great legacy to France's struggle
against the global dominance of the US: a series of
technological projects including a European search engine to
rival Google. Named Quaero - Latin for "I search" - the
search engine aims to be the first to efficiently sort
through audio, images and video.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1761482,00.html
GOOGLE WILL NOT FIGHT CHINESE CENSORSHIP
Google's chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, says Google is
not lobbying to change China's censorship laws and, for now,
has no plans to do so. Schmidt was visiting China last week
to promote the company's new Chinese search engine and to
meet with officials of various Chinese ministries.
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6060698.html
SF PICKS GOOGLE AND EARTHLINK BID FOR WIFI INITIATIVE
Google's bid to blanket San Francisco with a free wireless
Internet service cleared a major hurdle Wednesday when a
city panel identified the search leader and EarthLink as the
best candidates for the ambitious project. The
recommendation, completing a six-week review, allows the
city to begin negotiations with Google and EarthLink, which
decided to team together earlier this year after initially
bidding against each other. The companies will pay to build
the entire network, which is expected to cost at least $15
million.
http://tinyurl.com/j5cpf
COURT DISMISSES SEARCH KEYWORD TRADEMARK CLAIMS
A US federal court ruled last week that the purchase by
Canadian pharmacies of search engine keywords using the name
of rival Merck's "Zocor" cholesterol reduction drug does not
constitute trademark infringement. The US District Court for
the Southern District of New York refused to dismiss the
claims of trademark dilution and false advertising, but
dismissed the trademark infringement claim related to the
keyword purchases.
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6056754.html
GOOGLE EARTH MAY CATCH A BREAK IN PATENT QUAKE
Google may get a break from a federal judge in a lawsuit
claiming the company's 3D Earth-mapping program violates
patent rights. The legal fight began in May 2004 when a
Virginia-based company called Skyline Software Systems filed
a patent-infringement suit against Keyhole. Google became
part of the suit after it acquired Keyhole in October 2004.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-6056716.html
CT. SENDS GOOGLE KEYWORD INFRINGEMENT CASE TO TRIAL
A court has ruled that a lawsuit over a company purchasing a
rival's trademark as a search keyword should go to trial, in
what could be the first case to scrutinize the trademark
infringement liability of keyword purchasers. Edina Realty
sued rival real estate company TheMLSonline.com, accusing it
of false advertising, trademark infringement and trademark
dilution. According to the suit, MLS used "Edina Realty" in
search terms purchased on Google and Yahoo, in the text of
the MLS ads that appeared on the two search sites, and in
hidden links and text on the MLS Web site.
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-6055768.html
9TH CIRCUIT OVERTURNS YAHOO! FRANCE DECISION
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday ruled against
Yahoo in the company's attempt to persuade the court to
intervene in a landmark ruling in France over the sale of
Nazi memorabilia on its websites. The 99 page decision
focuses on the jurisdiction of the court and whether the
first amendment issues were ripe for consideration. Decision
at
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0117424P.pdf
Coverage at
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10827880/
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6026749.html
FEDERAL COURT HEARS ARGUMENTS IN GOOGLE NEWS CASE
BNA's E-commerce Law Daily reports on Wednesday's hearing
involving the suit by Agence France Press against Google
over the Google News service. At issue is whether news
headlines are copyrightable subject matter.
http://ipcenter.bna.com/pic2/ip.nsf/id/BNAP-6KYKF9?OpenDocument
Reading For Class About Google
Read About Google.
Read about Google's products and services
Different Ways to Search on Google
What is different about this search box?
Have a look at the Google and other advertising links on this page.
One bad aspects of Google:
Domain monetarisation, and see this paper.
Lecture on geo-identification
His lecture on geo-identification, which is the practice of identiyfing internet users' geographical locations, considered how this technology can be used to ensure compliance with national regulations. The PowerPoint slides he used are available here. He also has a website that contains numerous links and resources on geo-identification: http://www.svantesson.org/svantesson4geoid.htm.
xxx domain name controversy
Read more here.
Challenge to Amazon's 1-Click Patent
Geo-Identification: A Death Sentence for the ‘borderless’ internet?
Speaker: Dr Dan Svantesson
Title: Geo-Identification - A Death Sentence for the ‘borderless’ internet?
Date: Wednesday 24 May 2006
Time: 5.30pm Refreshments
6.00pm Lecture commences
Venue Lecture Room B122, B Block, Level 1
QUT Gardens Point Campus
The Topic
Recent technological advances let operators of Internet facilities, such as websites, identify the geographical location of those they interact with, enabling them to make their content available in certain locations only. Such geo-identification can solve many of the legal problems associated with the “borderless” Internet. However, this practice also changes the Internet from a relatively borderless medium to something similar to our physical world, divided by borders of different kinds.
The lecture has two aims: (1) giving legal practitioners a better understanding of how geo-identification can help to limit their clients’ legal risk exposure; and (2) giving academics, law-makers and other interested parties an understanding of how the technologies discussed affect Internet regulation.
The Speaker
Dr Dan Svantesson is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, Bond University. He has law degrees from both Sweden and Australia. In 2004 he was awarded a PhD at UNSW for his thesis titled ‘Private international law and the Internet’. He is a Research Associate at the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, a Board Member of the Australian Privacy Foundation and the National Convenor for the International Law Interest Group of the Australasian Law Teachers Association. Further, he is the National Rapporteur for Australia within the Data Protection Research and Policy Group of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and a Contributing Editor of the World Legal Information Institute. Dan specialises in international aspects of the IT society, an area within which he has published a range of articles and given presentations in Australia, Asia and Europe.
Registration
Sue Lavering
FPL Secretary, International and Community Engagement
Faculty of Law
Queensland University of Technology
Ph 3864 5433
Fax 3864 1161
Email s.lavering@qut.edu.au
LAPD has started a blog
Do you think this is a good use for a blog?
eBay patent case
MS v Google ... again
A defining moment?
Attorney-General announces copyright reforms
These reforms will be discussed in class tonight.
Choking the internet
Read the article and let us know what you think?
Hacker fails to avoid extradition
Audit of ISPs by ACMA
Minister for Communications, Information technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, said that the findings of the audit carried out by the communications regulator demonstrated the effectiveness of codes of practice under its co-regulatory content regulation scheme. However, a spokeswoman for the Minister said that the federal Government had not ruled out ISP-level content filtering and that the Senator's comments shouldn't be taken as indication of how well current regulation policy was working. Read the Minister's press release here.
For more details, read this report in Australian IT.
Yahoo seeks media freedom in China
.xxx domain name rejected
Read more here.
xxx
Do you think this would be an effective measure to regulate online content?
Academic Live
Affordable internet gambling?
Have you ever gambled on the internet? Do you believe that people should be able to gamble on the internet? What legal regulation should there be for online gambling?
U.S. CYBERGAMBLING BAN?
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6068432.html
What impact will this have? Will it be effective?
iTunes patent
A patent application filed by Apple Computer in December 2004 appears to cover a method of buying a song, ring tone, for music video from an online store over a wireless network. The application was published yesterday on the Web site of
the US Patent and Trademark Office. It describes an invention that allows cell phone or wireless handheld users to interact with an online music store, such as iTunes, and mark a song or video file that can be downloaded to a computer at a later time.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-6068654.html
Blogging in China
What impact do you think blogs will have on Chinese society? Can blogs help bring democracy to China?
Business 2.0 Magazine: MySpace purge draws sharp reactions
- SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0) - When Friendster started deleting profiles it deemed risque or otherwise objectionable, users bolted for the exits, helping to boost rival social networks like MySpace. Could MySpace be making the same mistake? Author Nicholas Carr characterized a recent move to close 200,000 accounts as a "purge." Ross Levinsohn, head of MySpace parent News Corp.'s (Research) Internet division, said the move was motivated by concerns for teen safety. That's certainly credible given the spate or recent incidents in which adults have been arrested for soliciting sex from minors met on the site. But mainstream marketers' concerns about questionable content may just go just as far in explaining its recent reform campaign. And with 250,000 new accounts opened daily, the closures hardly seem large enough to slow MySpace's momentum.
Will this impact on MySpace? Should MySpace be censoring accounts?
Australian Code on Spam
Do you think this Code will help reduce spam? Why? Why not?
Back to blogging
IIA Questions ALP Policy Position on Internet Content
Tuesday, March 21 2006
The Internet Industry Association has questioned the rationale for the
fundamental change to Australia's internet content regulatory scheme
proposed by the ALP today.
"We are not convinced that Australian families will benefit from
fundamentally changing a scheme which is internationally recognised as
the most advanced of its kind in the world", said IIA chief executive
Peter Coroneos.
Mr Coroneos added: "Under the government-backed Internet Content Code
scheme which applies in Australia, ISPs are already required to provide
their customers with access to a filter or filtered feed. Furthermore,
these filters must pass rigorous independent testing to ensure they not
only catch the kind of content referred to the in the Opposition's
proposal, but also thousands of other sites which are likely to cause
offence to adults and potential disturbance to children. On top of all
this, the scheme prohibits ISPs from profiting from the provision of
these filters - they must be offered on a cost recovery basis, and some
ISPs even offer them for free."
Under Australia's Broadcasting Services Act, industry Codes of Practice
are developed and enforced. The Codes apply to all ISPs in Australia who
are required to adhere to the scheme, and substantial penalties exist
for non-compliance. These penalties are enforceable in the Federal Court.
Mr Coroneos added: "It is important to recognise that the UK 'Cleanfeed'
scheme (upon which the Labor proposals are modelled) was a
market-drivien initiative which arose because the UK lacked the strong
legislative protection available to Australians. We can't understand why
we'd adopt measures that will impose significant extra costs on users,
degrade network performance and deliver no real upside for Australian
families beyond that currently available."
"For families and those concerned with child safety the message is
simple," Mr Coroneos concluded. "Follow the advice given by your ISP and
take advantage of the tools and services they provide to shield your
children from unsuitable sites."
Ends
More information about the IIA Codes and family friendly filters is
available at www.iia.net.au/guideuser.html. For details of Australia's
co-regulatory scheme see www.acma.gov.au. For general information about
protecting children online, see www.netalert.net.au.
For further information please contact:
Peter Coroneos
Chief Executive
Internet Industry Association
www.iia.net.au
phone (02) 6232 6900
Tales from the Public Domain: Bound By Law?
Michael Geist: Keepmusiccoming.com Goes From Bad To Worse
- "I recently blogged about CRIA's failure to renew keepmusiccoming.com, which it used as part of its 'educational' campaign to convince users to stop downloading. A blog reader has noted that the situation has gone from bad to worse as the site is now owned by a Russian download service offering up thousands of MP3 files it says are legal for nine cents each. Bear in mind, there are thousands of CDs sitting in Canadian stores today encouraging people to visit keepmusiccoming.com."
Google's GDrive
Read more here.
Government censorship in Australia?
Is this censorship? Should the Australian government be allowed to ask Melbourne IT to shut down the site?
EFF: Proposed New Jersey Laws Would Chill Free Speech
Read EFF's open letter to three New Jersey congressmen.
US trys to stop internet gambling
What dangers are posed by internet gambling? Should internet gambling be banned? How can we regulate internet gambling?
More censorship in China
dot.XXX legislation proposed in the US
Read more here.
China defends internet censorship
ICANN to test non-English domain names
Read more here.
France to open up iTunes
Read more here.
What might the implications of this proposed law? Should other nations consider implementing a similar law? Why? Why not?
More criticism of AOL's attempt to create a two tiered email service
"It seems to me that AOL is setting a horrible precedent here," he said. "The whole ideal of Net neutrality gets wiped away, and we are left with an Internet of haves and have-nots."
Read more here.
ID theft in South Korea
information, amid increasing concerns over privacy theft on the Internet. The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs has proclaimed a new law, under which one could serve up to three years in prison or face a maximum 10 million won fine for unauthorized use of personal information.
Read more here.
Creative Common license upheld
Read more at the Creative Commons blog.
Google wins a court battle
Read a summary of the case here. The judgment is also available to read.
Microsoft to help parents monitor their children
Read more here.
Do you think this will be an effective way to regulate content on the internet?
For LWB141 Legal Institutions and Method students
Australian IT: Cybersnooping laws differ in Australia
Microsoft joins the fight against spam
Read more here.
Do you think the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group will be effective in reducing spam?
Abu Ghraib photos online
Most of the photos had been published before. Salon.com said it was the first news organization to publish the full file of photos collected by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, which previously released some in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Read more here. To see the pictures, click here.
Should these images be available on the internet? What policy considerations underpin your opinion on this issue?
Online international paedophile pornography ring
Authorities have identified seven child victims, including an infant whose molestation in April by a suburban Chicago man was transmitted live via an internet chat room to a co-conspirator who used the screen name "BigtDaddy619".
Four of those charged allegedly molested the children, making the resulting images available in the chat room called "Kiddypics & Kiddyvids," that facilitated trading of thousands of images and videos, the statement said.
Read the full story here. See one of the indictments here.
ISP held not liable for passively posting defamatory content
"if a person knowingly permits another to communicate information which is defamatory, when there would be an opportunity to prevent the publication, there would seem to be no reason in principle why liability should not accrue."
The case is Bunt v. Tilley [2006] EWHC 407 (QB) (10 March 2006).
Google to put whole books online
- Google is expanding its role in the publishing world from a search engine for books to a distributor making entire books available to read online.
The company launched a new program Friday that allows traditional book publishers in the United States and Britain to sell and set the price for access to full copies of their books, Google spokeswoman Megan Lamb said Monday. Consumers who purchase the access cannot save copies of the books or individual pages to their computers and can view them only through a Web browser.
"We are collaborating with publishers -- in response to demand from them -- to develop a suite of online tools that will enable publishers to experiment with new and innovative ways to generate more book revenue,'' Lamb said in an e-mail.
The new program is open only to U.S. and U.K. publishers at this point.
Several points remained unclear: whether Google would get a cut of the price paid for access to a book; whether customers who purchase access to books see advertising while they read the books; and whether independent authors will also one day sell full access to their books through the service.
Read the full article here.
US Family Entertainment and Copyright Act
Reinventing the internet
- The internet has been a hotbed of innovation because it’s "dumb". The designers didn’t presuppose how the internet would be used and that has made it extremely flexible. But what we are running into now are scaling and security problems, and some people are asking: if we were building the internet from scratch, what would be the ideal clean-slate design?
Do you think the internet should be redesigned from scratch? What do you think the internet would look like? Do you think that such a redesign could ever realistically happen?
Legal to search a computer for child pornography
The opening two paragraphs of the opinion summarise the issue:
- The term "Lolita" conjures up images ranging from the literary depiction of the adolescent seduced by her stepfather in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel to erotic displays of young girls and child pornography. This case requires us to consider probable cause to search a computer for child pornography in the
context of an Internet website, known as "Lolitagurls.com," that admittedly displayed child pornography.
Micah Gourde appeals from the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress more than 100 images of child pornography seized from his home computer. Gourde claims that the affidavit in support of the search lacked sufficient indicia of probable cause because it contained no evidence that Gourde actually downloaded or possessed child pornography. We disagree. Based on the totality of the circumstances, the magistrate judge who issued the warrant made a "practical, common-sense decision" that there was a "fair probability" that child pornography would be found on Gourde’s computer. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238 (1983). The Fourth Amendment requires no more.
The full opinion is available here. A news story reporting on the ruling is available here.
US Child Online Protection Act
Opponents of the Act contend that not only is it too broad and would therefore stifle free speech, but that advances in technology have made it obsolete. SiliconValley.com summarises the issues plaguing the Act.
Is the Act obsolete? Does the Act unduly infringe upon free speech? How can we protect children from offensive content that is available online?
Judge plans to order Google to hand over data to the US Government
Read more here (free subscription required). See also CNN.com.
Microsoft in trouble with the European Commission
Read the full report here.
US Government sideas against eBay in patent dispute
AFP: Hong Kong clamps down on data firms after police leak
- Hong Kong authorities said that they would set up a register of data-collection companies after details of 20,000 people who complained about the police were leaked on to the Internet. Roderick Woo, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, said the companies would have to provide information on what kind of data they collect and why, and who will access to it. Woo said authorities were investigating the leaked data, including names, addresses and criminal records, which apparently came from the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC). The IPCC had denied any link with the website that carried the information but local media quoted unnamed police source saying the council outsourced data processing. Read more here.
Should Australia implement a similar register of data collection companies?
Michael Geist asks "Does the Government Have a Role in Internet Connectivity?"
appropriate role for governments and public institutions in providing Internet connectivity. He argues that government cannot adopt a hands-off approach, though it must recognize that its role differs in the urban and rural markets with the urban focus on the competitive environment, while the rural mandate concentrated on establishing connectivity.
Read Michael Geist's comments here.
Do you agree that "Given the Web's importance, government cannot adopt a hands-off approach, though it must recognize that its role differs in the urban and rural markets"?
Google's Brazilian unit in trouble
Read the full story here.
Does this tell us anything about jurisdictional difficulties on the internet?
Internet hate speech in Canada
You can read the decision here.
IT Today
- Australia's digital content industry was being outpaced by other countries according to a report released by Department of Communication Information Technology and the Arts. Read more here.
- The National Australia Bank was able to quickly shut down three sites in China that launched a phishing attack on it. Read the article here.
- A feature story on corporate blogging, including why you would and why you wouldn't have a corporate blog. See also the more sceptical view of David Holmes, the managing director of online media agency OneDigital.
- A Special Report on Open Source Software (not available online).
Hate speech and the internet
The website referred to is a blog titled Patriot Alliance Downunder. You can view the website at http://avoiceofdissent.blogspot.com/.
Does this website breach Australian state and/or federal law? Should a website with this sort of content be allowed to remain online? What does the fact that this website is still online tell you about internet content regulation in Australia?
Japan: the internet and suicide pacts
- "Internet suicide pacts have occurred since at least the late 1990s and have been reported everywhere from Guam to the Netherlands. But in Japan, where the suicide rate is among the industrialized world's highest, officials are worried about a recent spate of such deaths."
Read the full article here.
Is it possible to stop the internet being used in this way?
EFF Consumer Alert: AdviceBox.com isn't Anonymous Email
- EFF is warning the public about a so-called anonymous email service located at Advicebox.com. Advicebox.com's tagline is "Anonymous email made easy" but this service does not provide real anonymity -- it's a trap for the unwary and should not be used by battered spouses, whistleblowers and others who need real protection. Read more here.
Will Google take on Microsoft in the market for office-productivity software?
Who do you think will win? Can you think of any legal concerns users may have with an online office-productivity suite?
Amazon to make movies and tv shows available to download
Internet censorship in Russia
New York Times: "Anonymous Source Is Not the Same as Open Source"
- "Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, currently serves up the following: Five billion pages a month. More than 120 languages. In excess of one million English-language articles. And a single nagging epistemological question: Can an article be judged as credible without knowing its author? Wikipedia says yes, but I am unconvinced."
Read the full article here.
What do you think? Can an article be judged as credible without knowing its author?
European Digital Library
US internet search giant Google triggered an international race to build an online library when it announced plans in December 2004 to digitise books and documents from a handful of big libraries (see Google Book Search). US based internet and software giants Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon have since announced separate plans while France, angry that private companies took the lead, has pushed for the creation of a public digital library.
Read more here.
What copyright issues need to be considered when creating a digital library?
Backspace: 5 March to 12 March
This week this blog covered several important stories and raised a number of interesting issues:
- Google continued its attempts to capture the Chinese search engine market (as rumours circulated that China was contemplating creating its own internet), settled its lawsuit against Lane’s Gifts, and saw a new competitor, in Microsoft, enter the search engine business. This blog also asked these questions about Google: Can Google commit libel through its search engine results? What are the the potential privacy implications of Google’s Desktop Search software? Does Google’s image search constitute a breach of US copyright laws? We also saw inside the Googleplex.
- Russia was warned that its chances of joining the World Trade Organization this year will fade if the government pushes ahead with new legislation on intellectual property rights
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation started its fight against charging a fee for email, and the New York Times weighed in on the debate by posing the question "Are consumers going to start having to spend a lot more to surf the Web?.
- Privacy concerns about e-commerce surfaced this week with the news that customers of the online payments service iBill had had their personal information released onto the internet.
- Australia was found to be lagging behind other developed nations in terms of broadband internet speed, yet in Great Britain people spend more time on the internet than watching television.
- The Browser from Business 2.0 Magazine reported on a scary reminder of the bubble years, criticism of Microsoft's Origami, how an Intel demo turned into a shouting match, and how a Google acquisition could challenge Microsoft Word.
- Some of the complexities of e-voting were seen in litigation in North Carolina.
- As the US Department of Justice launched in inquiry into allegations of price fixing by top music labels on their charges for digital downloading, other options were being considered around the world. A new online music service aims to offer CDs for $US1 ($1.35) by letting members trade used physical discs and France considered whether to legalise peer-to-peer file-sharing through scheme that allowed internet users to download as much as they want as long they paid a small monthly fee. Meanwhile, it was reported that “radio podcasting is rapidly moving from the realm of hip and hype into serious media”.
- A report by Symantec found that cyber-criminals are focusing less on destroying data and increasingly on attacks designed to silently steal data for profit.
- eBay removed from its website an advertisement for a 1982 BMW that was advertised as once belonging to one of the gunmen in the Columbine High School killings, only to see the seller set up a personal website to solicit bids on the car at http://www.buykleboldsbmw.com/.
- A story involving threats made on a MySpace.com website provoked this question: Is the internet a safe place for children?
- Blackberry settled its patent infringement lawsuit filed by NTP
- Content regulation in China, a theme considered in this blog last week, resurfaced as Microsoft denied that it had any involvement in the arrest of a Chinese journalist on subversion charges. Some of the inherent difficulties in content regulation also made news this week.
- Tuesday’s Australian IT liftout reported on e-healthcare, Google’s profit projections and research by Seccom Networks that suggests up to a third of companies are having information taken from their computers by adware or spyware.
- Finally, these questions about blogs were asked: Why do people read blogs? When bloggers comment on issues, should they disclose any potential conflicts of interest? Who should profit from a blog?
For LWB141 Legal Institutions and Method students
Microsoft's search engine is Live
To start searching, go to http://www.live.com/.
Personal information released onto the internet
As the report notes, "The breach has broad privacy implications for the victims. Until it was brought low by legal and financial difficulties, iBill was a top credit-card processor for adult entertainment websites."
To read about the details of this story, click here.
Australian IT: "Aust internet crawls along"
Check out The Browser from Business 2.0 Magazine
- The launch of a new Internet incubator is a scary reminder of the bubble years.
- Microsoft's Origami draws criticism.
- Intel demo turns into shouting match.
- Google acquisition could challenge Microsoft Word.
Can Google commit libel?
The question is asked following an article in The Times reporting that Google has been asked by Premiership footballer Ashley Cole's solicitors to explain why his name has been linked to the word “gay” in internet search results.
Read more here and here.
More on the online sale of a car that once belonged to one of the Columbine gunmen
The Rocky Mountain News is now reporting that the seller has now set up a personal website to solicit bids on the car at http://www.buykleboldsbmw.com/.
Should the seller be allowed to create this website? Although you might find the nature of this website unpleasant, is there any legal justification for banning such a site or closing it down?
Australian IT: Podcasting transcends geek factor
The internet beats TV in Britain
Does this fact surprise you? Are people spending too much time on the internet?
Google settles lawsuit
EFF warns: "Google Copies Your Hard Drive"
Are you concerned by the potential privacy implications of Google's Desktop software?
E-voting
Some of the legal complexities relating to e-voting are currently being considered by the courts in North Carolina. If you are interested in e-voting and want to know what is being litigated in North Carolina, click here.
If you would like to know more news about e-voting in the US, visit Voters Unite.
Copyright and Google image search
Do you agree with the decision? How do you think the appeal will be decided? Do you agree with Cody's conclusion that, even if the decision is upheld on appeal, "the vitality of Web does not appear in jeopardy as a result of the district court’s decision"?
Russian copyright laws
This report reminds us of the important role that intellectual property rights are playing in the promotion of free trade through free trade organisations and agreements, especially in bilateral agreements with the United States.
eBay removes advertisement for car owned by one of the gunmen in the Columbine High School killings
Do you agree that this material should have been removed from the eBay website? Is this censorship, or should eBay be able to decide what is sold through its website?
Cyber-criminals gettting smarter
Read a summary of the report here. And this is how The Australian reported the story.
"A new twist on online song swapping" ...
Would you share music in this way? Would such a system be legal in Australia?
Microsoft's new search engine
Bloggers as advertisers
Some of these issues are covered in this article from the New York Times, "Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in P.R. Campaign" (free subscription required).
Microsoft and China
Is China Creating Its Own Internet?
- "There are conflicting reports as to whether China is considering creating an internal Internet structure that is not governed by ICANN. Reports in the China People's Daily suggested that China would create top level domains using Chinese characters as addresses. A lot of the non-English world wants to extend addresses to their own alphabets, something with which ICANN has been moving glacially slow.
Reports are that China is working with second-level domains, rather than .cn, .com, and .net as suggested by other reports.
A report in the Toronto Star by Professor Michael Geist suggests that whether top or second level domains are involved, the prospects of China being used as a model by other countries has the potential to up-end U.S. control of top level domain servers. China is a little different from most countries in that the population of Internet users is large enough that the Chinese government could, indeed, make the split work for that country. Critics believe if China successfully splits from the Internet as it is currently governed, the government there would be able to censor content even more than is possible under current circumstances.
Stories on this from CIO Today, the Toronto Star, and Xinhua."
Why do people read blogs?
EFF fights against charging a fee for email
- Would charging for email be just like a road toll?
- When will email cease to be free?
- Would charging for email introduce a two-tiered system?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has started an open letter to AOL in which it expresses its serious concern with AOL's adoption of Goodmail's CertifiedEmail, seeing it as a threat to a free and open internet. Read the letter and see if you agree with EFF's argument? What are some of the counter-arguments?
End of patent lawsuit against Blackberry
For some background and commentary, see Ben at LawFont.
China and Google
- A United States Congressional Committee has accused Google (and other internet companies) of a "sickening and eveil" collaboration with the Chinese government and of being complicit in the jailing and torture of dissidents. This stems from Google's agreement with the Chinese government to block various politically sensitive terms from their new China specific site, Google.cn. Read more here.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation has called for internet companies to adopt a code of conduct when engaging with authoritarian regimes.
- While all the controversy dominates the media, Beijing News, a Beijing newspaper, indicates it may be academic as Google's new China specific site doies not have a license. Read more here.
Is MySpace.com safe?
Is the internet a safe place for children? What can the law do to help protect children when they go online? Or is simply something that parents need to monitor?
Legal peer-to-peer file-sharing ... for a fee
What do you think of the original French scheme? Is such a scheme a solution to the problem of illegal downloading? Should peer-to-peer file-sharing be legal? Why? Or why not?
IT Today
- The federal government's committment to e-health, through HealthConnect, has been called into question by Queensland Health. Read about it here. What role can e-healthcare play in our health system? Is government adequately committed to e-health? Is e-health simply a waste of money? What legal issues would inherently surround e-health? (Think about privacy law?)
- Following on from Google's profit projections mentioned in this blog last week, Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt says he sees no limit to the search engine's ability to increase advertising revenue, allaying investor concerns about slowing growth. Read more here.
- Research by Seccom Networks suggests that up to a third of companies are having information taken from their computers by adware or spyware. The research apparently reveals that about only two in every 100 companies in Australia are able to identify any threat, mitigate it and collect forensic evidence so legal action can be taken. Read more here. What does this mean for Australian businesses? And what does it tell us about the difficulty in collecting forensic evidence in an electronic and digital environment?
Money and the internet
Can blogs replace the mainstream media?
What do you think? Can bloggers better fulfil these functions? Could the blog hasten the end of traditional media sources?
Inquiry into music downloading
For further discussion see the Tech Law Prof Blog.
How should the major music labels respond to this trend?
Some of the difficulties inherent in content regulation
However, the New York Times reports (free subscription required) that the relatively innocent site Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things had been blocked by SmartFilter on the basis that a site reviewer from SmartFilter had "spotted something fleshy" and incorrectly (or at the least unfairly) labelled the site with the Nudity characterisation.
As is noted in the article, "There is far too much content on the Internet for one company to review manually, so they have to cut corners. And they're going to fall further behind as the Web gets bigger."
Is there a solution to this problem? Should we just accept that it is impossible to provide effective content regulation for the internet? Should we even go so far to say that there should be no regulation of the internet?
Who should profit from a blog?
What do you think? Who should profit?
Microsoft v Google
Backspace: 26 February to 5 March
- The big copyright story was the release of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs handing down its report on the inquiry into technological protection measures.
- The other copyright story was that Apple iTunes Music Store stated that it would not be releasing local download figures.
- Moving away from copyright, the blog considered whether email on the Internet should be free. Would charging for email be just like a road toll? When will email cease to be free? And would charging for email introduce a two-tiered system? Would a charging for email reduce our dependence on email?
- Phishing continues to be a threat to Australia, while some US states, like Virginia, are fighting back.
- Internet usage continues to grow, as does the google juggernaut.
- Despite the promises of Bill Gates, spam continues to be a problem, forcing companies and law firms to find ways of limiting spam.
- Threats, hackers and cyberviolence continue to provoke further regulation of the internet.
- Content regulation of the internet in China. This is a major legal, technological and political issue that will be considered throughout the semester and warrants more comment and attention.
I hope you found some of these links and issues interesting. Please post your comments to encourage more debate and discussion.
South Korea and "cyberviolence"
- South Korea is the world's most wired country, boasting the highest per capita rate of broadband Internet connections.
- The term cyberviolence encompasses anything from online insults to sexual harassment and cyberstalking.
- Prosecutors are beginning to respond to the threat posed by cyberviolence.
- Also responding is the government, who plans to introduce a bill that real-name authentication.
- Websites too are responding by actively seeking to filter comments.
There are four questions worthing considering here. First, is given the nature of the virtual environment of the internet is cyberviolence really a threat or danger? Second, are the respective responses of prosecutors, the government and individual websites warranted and proportionate to whatever threat or danger is posed? Will real-name authentication, which would have the effect of removing anonymous online speech in South Korea, be a threat to free speech? Do we, and should we, have a right to anonymous speech?
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...