- Background: The Australian
- Australian Trial Judge Decision
- Full Court of Federal Court Decision
- Note regarding US decision on jurisdiction
A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
In the past few weeks, we have seen a series of legal issues arise in relation to comments on the internet – particularly on Facebook.
In one case, $30,000 in damages was rewarded in response to defamatory comments by a man using various pseudonyms on a stock market forum. We have also seen an Indonesian man currently face jail time for insulting his music mentor on Facebook. ..."
See also - Facebook Ads article
Net fraud accused back online
A TEENAGE Brisbane student accused of using the internet to defraud Queensland's biggest bank of $2 million has today had his ban on using the internet lifted.
Brisbane Magistrate Noel Nunan this morning varied bail conditions for Philip Heggie, 18, so he could use the internet to continue his university studies.
Heggie, a University of Queensland business student, made a brief appearance in the Brisbane Magistrate's Court to answer charges of fraud, attempted fraud and uttering a forged document.
Click here to read the full article on the website
--- A class member asks the following regarding the above story:
Given the level of sophistication required to perpetrate these alleged activities, has the Court (in its most recent decision concerning bail conditions) paid sufficient heed to the possibility of the accused undertaking similar acts? How meaningful are either of the different sets of bail conditions prescribed by the court, given that cyber crimes can be undertaken anonymously?
Google moved quickly to contain a firestorm of criticism over Buzz, its new social network, taking the unusual step of announcing changes to the product over the weekend to address privacy problems.
Late Saturday, Todd Jackson, product manager for Gmail and Google Buzz, wrote in a blog post that Google had decided to alter one of the most vehemently criticized features in Buzz: the ready-made circle of friends that Buzz gives new users based on their most frequent e-mail and chat contacts. Now, instead of automatically connecting people, Buzz merely suggests to new users a group of people that they may want to follow or want to be followed by. ....
SAN FRANCISCO — When Google introduced Buzz — its answer to Facebook and Twitter — it hoped to get the service off to a fast start. New users of Buzz, which was added to Gmail on Tuesday, found themselves with a ready-made network of friends automatically selected by the company based on the people that each user communicated with most frequently through Google’s e-mail and chat services.
Share your thoughts.
But what Google viewed as an obvious shortcut stirred up a beehive of angry critics. Many users bristled at what they considered an invasion of privacy, and they faulted the company for failing to ask permission before sharing a person’s Buzz contacts with a broad audience. For the last three days, Google has faced a firestorm of criticism on blogs and Web sites, and it has already been forced to alter some features of the service.
The case also underscores the challenges that global companies face in trying to safeguard their designs and intellectual property in the hotly contested smartphone market, particularly here in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, an electronics manufacturing center known for piracy and counterfeiting."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/technology/companies/27apple.html
Here is a back story about it: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html
Lars Rasmussen is speaking later this month in Brisbane, and next month in Sydney & Melbourne. He invented Google Maps, and now Google Wave. He lives in Sydney.
2009 Innovation Lecture - Dr Lars Rasmussen, Google
In a long-awaited opinion, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Google must face a trademark infringement lawsuit for selling keywords that trigger ads.
The three-judge panel reversed a lower court's dismissal of Rescuecom v. Google, 06-4881, in which computer-repair company Rescuecom had claimed that users could be confused by links to competitors' ads that appear alongside Google search results for the company's trademarked name.
See
Rescuecom Corp. v. Google Inc., 2009 WL 875447 (2d Cir. April 3, 2009)
SMCB March is a panel discussion about legal issues related to the social media world. Joining us on the panel for the evening is:After you've picked the lawyers' brains hang around for a few drinks downstairs at Lock n Load's Jazz Night. Feel free to arrive from 5.30pm, with the panel session starting at 6.00pm.
- Peter Black, Lecturer, QUT Law School
- Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation, QUT Law School
- John Swinson, Partner, Mallesons
SMBC March is proudly supported by QUT Faculty of Law and Lock n Load Bistro.
Lock n Load is at 142 Boundary St, West End QLD 4101. View Google Maps here.
Google Patent Chief: Patent reform needed more than ever
Posted: 03 Mar 2009 11:29 AM PST
Editorial by Michelle Lee, Head of Patents and Patent Strategy at Google, See http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/03/patent-reform-needed-more-than-ever.html
THE state election campaign is yet to officially begin, but a new battlefront has emerged in cyberspace in the fight to win over undecided voters.
Anyone googling Labor MP Dean Wells' name will first see a link to his Liberal National Party opponent's website on their screens.Listen to this podcast where I discuss how damages should be assessed in privacy and cybersecurity lawsuits. The Lawyers Weekly Show host J...