A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
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Ninth Circuit Rules That Copyright Holders Must Consider Fair Use Before Issuing DMCA Takedown Notice
Media
companies and other copyright holders may need to change the way they
deal with infringing content on the Internet. In a closely watched
copyright case,
Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. (also known as the "Dancing Baby" case), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
ruled yesterday
that copyright holders must consider fair use before issuing takedown
notices to remove allegedly infringing content from websites such as
YouTube and Facebook. This decision has significant
implications for owners of copyright-protected content, especially
studios, record labels, publishers and other entities with large content
catalogs, as well as individuals and businesses that rely on fair use
to exploit copyrighted material owned by others.
Redlands Council Threatens Lawsuit against Facebook Posters
See Brisbane Times
"Redland City Council has sought to shut down online criticism by sending threatening legal letters to residents over comments made on social media.
Five residents have received the legal threats in the past week over Facebook posts that suggested, among other things, that political donations from developers had swayed council decisions."
Australian Government releases survey into online copyright infringement
The research is said to show that Australia has high levels of online copyright infringement.
See Government Website with full survey results.
Patentable Subject Matter Guidelines for the United States
The newly released update to the section 101 Eligibility Guidelines is on the USPTO website at the link below:
Copyright and eBooks
From Australian Copyright Agency:
The
UK Publisher’s Association has successfully gained an order to have
that country’s five main internet service providers block consumer
access to websites promoting the online theft of ebooks.
Investigations
found at least 80 per cent of the reportedly 10 million ebook titles on
seven offshore websites were infringing copyright and almost a million
takedown notices had been issued to the sites. The sites make
substantial sums of money from referral fees and advertising, with none
of that income returning to publishers or authors.
The
UK Publishers Association Chief Executive, Richard Mollet, said: “A
third of publisher revenues now come from digital sales but
unfortunately this rise in the digital market has brought with it a
growth in online infringement. Our members need to be able to protect
their authors’ works from such illegal activity; writers need to be paid
and publishers need to be able to continue to innovate and invest in
new talent and material.” Read the media release here.
The UK decision reflects our own situation in Australia where a two-pronged approach aims to curb online piracy.
Firstly, the creative and telecommunications sectors have jointly established a new code
to combat internet piracy. It involves an escalating series of
infringement notices being issued to repeat infringers and has been
submitted for registration to the Australian Communications and Media
Authority.
At the same time, the Federal Government has legislation before the Senate to allow rights holders to apply to a court for an order requiring ISPs to block offshore websites promoting online theft.
The Copyright Agency supports these moves and will continue to campaign for copyright and stand up for creators’ rights.
Murray St Leger,
Chief Executive
Should you go to law school in Australia?
You
may have seen reference to the New South Wales Law Society report on
the “Future Prospects of Law Graduates” in last Friday’s Australian. If
you have not seen the full report here is the link to it. http://www.lawsociety.com.au/cs/groups/public/documents/internetcontent/980877.pdf
Dallas Buyers Club decision - who won?
The Australian Federal Court decided today that ISP iiNet was required to identify some of its customers who have downloaded the movie "Dallas Buyers Club". The court imposed restrictions and costs on the copyright holder. No email addresses were ordered to be disclosed. Dallas Buyers Club LLC v iiNet Limited [2015] FCA 317.
See Court Decision and SMH Article.
See Court Decision and SMH Article.
Music Copyright
"On Tuesday, a federal jury in Los Angeles concluded that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, the performer and primary songwriter-producer of the 2013 pop hit “Blurred Lines,” committed copyright infringement by using elements of the 1977 Marvin Gaye song “Got to Give It Up” in their composition without proper credit. The jury awarded Mr. Gaye’s family approximately $7.3 million, a combination of profits from the song and damages. That’s an attention-getting amount of money, but the verdict itself is far more damning."
See NYT article
See NYT article
Left Shark Copyright
An interesting story about copyright in a costume for dancing shark. Read the lawyer's response at the end of the story.
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