Cyberlaw and Policy

Law firm sues over bad online review about it

2012-01-28T11:46:00.001+10:00

A Dallas law firm has filed a lawsuit seeking to learn the identity of a commenter calling himself “Ben” who posted a bad online review.

The Lenahan Law Firm claims defamation and seeks $50,000 in damages, Texas Lawyer reports. Partner Wes Black says the suit will allow the law firm to subpoena Google to learn the commenter’s identity.

Ben wrote in his comments on Google Review: "Bad experience with this firm. Don't trust the fake reviews here.” Ben also gave a bad review to an Oregon cleaning company and may have intended to post the negative review about a different law firm closer to home, the suit(PDF) says.

Black tells Texas Lawyer the Lenahan Law Firm gets most of its clients from searches, and the bad review won’t help. "The issue isn't trying to recover tons of money,” Black tells Texas Lawyer. “We just want the review down.”

See: ABA

New Google Privacy Policy

2012-01-28T11:39:00.003+10:00

"We're getting rid of over 60 differentprivacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that's alot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multipleproducts and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifullysimple and intuitive experience across Google.

We believe this stuff matters, so pleasetake a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms ofServiceat http://www.google.com/policies. Thesechanges will take effect on March 1, 2012."

See story in Washington Post and CNN

Mr Kim Dotcom Arrested - No Need for SOPA?

2012-01-20T18:27:00.004+10:00

With the recent arrest of Mr Kim Dotcom in NZ for online piracy, one wonders why new legislation such as the SOPA in the U.S. is needed.
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?

New gTLDs

2012-01-16T18:08:00.003+10:00

An article on the new top level domain names.

See B&T Magazine.

Faceless Net Giants

2011-12-20T04:30:00.000+10:00

A story in the Sydney Morning Herald: "Faceless Net Giants Writing Own Rule Books." If you upset Google (or Google Ireland -- the company that Google hides behind), they can just make you disappear.

"Australians use them more than any other websites and to many they have become essential services, oiling the wheels of life and commerce at the click of a mouse.

But when Google or Facebook no longer wants you, it can be all but impossible to find out why, as internet entrepreneur Mark Bowyer and others have found to their cost.

Earlier this year Google banned ads from his travel website, Rusty Compass, because it said the site "poses a risk of generating invalid activity".

Apple Apps

2011-12-19T20:00:00.004+10:00

On Christmas morning, millions of people will unwrap new iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches — and immediately start downloading games and other applications for them. It is the biggest day of the year for app sales, which can mean big money for developers.

Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, estimated that in the period from Dec. 23 to Dec. 26 last year, 240 million applications were downloaded to Apple mobile devices, or about 20 percent of the total downloads for the month.

Source: NYTimes

Brand xxx marks dot danger

2011-12-14T22:50:00.001+10:00

The arrival of a generic top-level domain specifically for the porn industry has worrying implications and likely costs for many well known labels.

There is more trouble for brand owners brewing in cyberspace, with fundamental changes to the domain name system being implemented. In March 2011, following successful lobbying from the adult entertainment industry, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) agreed to allow the creation of a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) specifically for the adult entertainment industry. A gTLD is represented by the letters that come after the dot in a domain name, such as .com or .net.

The new adult entertainment top-level domain is .xxx and will come online next year.

This has implications for every business because brand names could be used in domain names for adult websites. For example, someone could register the new domain name sportsgirl.xxx or boostjuice.xxx for a porn website.

Full Story in AFR

Metatag Use is Not Use as a Trade Mark

2011-11-30T22:36:00.001+10:00

"I do not accept that the use of any of CTI’s Registered Trade Marks in Green Energy’s metatags would constitute a trade mark infringement for the purposes of s 120(1). Metatags are invisible to the ordinary internet user, although their use will direct the user to (amongst other websites) Green Energy’s website. Once at the Green Energy website, then, in the ordinary course, the internet user will be made aware that the website is concerned with Green Energy’s services. It cannot, therefore, be said that the use in a metatag of CTI’s Registered Trade Marks is a use that indicates the origin of Green Energy’s services. Thus, metatag use is not use as a trade mark"

Complete Technology Integrations Pty Ltd v Green Energy Management Solutions Pty Ltd [2011] FCA 1319 (18 November 2011)

Samsung Overturns Apple Injunction in Australia

2011-11-30T22:24:00.001+10:00

Samsung was successfully in having an interlocutory injunction overturned today in the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. See decision: Samsung Electronics v. Apple Inc. [2011] FCAFC 156 (30 November 2011).

The case concerned two Australian patents owned by Apple. Apple asserted that the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet infringed claims of those two patents. An injunction was granted by the trial judge to prevent Samsung launching the Galaxy 10.1 in Australia until trial. Today, Samsung was successful in having that injunction removed.

As soon as the appeal court decision was announced today, Apple asked for the decision to be suspended so that it could appeal to the High Court of Australia. Apple asked this without even reading the Court's decision. The judge today suspended the decision until 4pm Friday, in effect keeping the injunction in place until Friday. Apple now has until 4pm Friday to convince the High Court of Australia to keep the injunction in place -- a hard task.

Law Schools That Teach Little About Legal Practice

2011-11-20T09:38:00.000+10:00

From the NY Times:

Law Schools That Teach Little About Legal Practice
By DAVID SEGAL
Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful, leaving law firms fairly resigned to training their hires how to actually practice law.

Speedo Shuts Down Blogger and Gets Domain Name

2011-11-17T20:15:00.003+10:00

A NSW man has been ordered to shut down several pornographic websites featuring Speedo swimwear and using the company's trademark. Speedo Holdings took Central Coast blogger Dave Evans to court claiming he had used the trademark under aliases and without the company's consent. The company claimed the websites and the use of the company's trademark as part of his domain names could damage the "valuable reputation and goodwill associated with the name and trade mark Speedo". In the Federal Court of Australia on Thursday, Justice Geoffrey Flick ordered Evans to stop operating and registering any domain name containing the name Speedo. He was also restrained from operating websites featuring any sign of the Speedo trademark. Evans, who didn't appear in court, was ordered to transfer the domain names to Speedo within 21 days.

See SMH article

Amazon Running Sweatshop

2011-11-05T08:54:00.005+10:00

Amazon's online store has great prices and service, and is efficient for consumers. But someone has to pick and pack the goods ordered online. Amazon has a number of distribution centres to do this. And according to U.S. newspaper reports, Amazon is running these distribution centres as sweatshops. This is the downside of cheap prices and Internet stores.

See for example: Inside Amazon's Warehouse.

Just Google "Amazon Sweatshop Pennsylvania" and you will find numerous articles about this situation.

Free books from Amazon

2011-11-05T08:51:00.000+10:00

"Free books, including New York Times bestsellers, for the Kindle. If you’re an Amazon Prime member.

Free shipping, free movies, free books, for $80 a year. What, exactly, is Amazon up to?

There has to be some master plan, because Amazon is spending itself silly to pull this off. Because the offer is limited to owners of Kindles — it doesn’t work if you use the Kindle service on an iPad, for instance — it is intended to sell more Kindles."

Pogue's Blog

Google Changes Search Algorithm to Make Results More Timely

2011-11-05T08:49:00.001+10:00

"Acknowledging that some searches were giving people stale results, Google revised its methods on Thursday to make the answers timelier. It is one of the biggest tweaks to Google’s search algorithm, affecting about 35 percent of all searches.

The new algorithm is a recognition that Google, whose dominance depends on providing the most useful results, is being increasingly challenged by services like Twitter and Facebook, which have trained people to expect constant updates with seconds-old news.

It is also a reflection of how people use the Web as a real-time news feed — that if, for example, you search for a baseball score, you probably want to find the score of a game being played at the moment, not last week, which is what Google often gave you."

Full story in NY Times.

Hyperlinking to articles not publication for defamation

2011-10-28T23:07:00.003+10:00

An interesting case concerning defamation on the Internet: see the Supreme Court of Canada decision, Crookes v Newton, 2011 SCC 47.

The defendant operated a website offering commentary on various issues. An comment included hyperlinks to two other pages, both of which contained articles that the defendant conceded were defamatory.

One hyperlink was "shallow," in that it referred to a web page on which the defamatory article was one of several articles posted there.

Another was "deep," in that clicking on the link led a viewer directly to the article.

For different reasons, all judges decided that this hyperlinking was not a "publication" for Canadian defamation law.

Inteflora case - bidding on trademarks as Google keywords

2011-09-28T16:08:00.003+10:00

The Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") has delivered its ruling in the long-running Interflora v Marks & Spencer Adwords case. The CJEU decided that trade mark owners can prohibit the purchase of their trade marks as keywords on web search engines, but cannot do so if the advertisements triggered do not allow users to ascertain the origin of the goods or services referred to in such advertisements.

See Bloomberg and Search Engine Watch

Australian Google AdWords Decision - Google Wins

2011-09-22T20:48:00.002+10:00

After an 17 month wait, Justice John Nicholas of the Federal Court of Australia decided today that the ACCC did not make out their claims against Google in the case involving sponsored links and Adwords.

The key findings were that:

ordinary and reasonable members of the relevant class of consumers are likely to understand that sponsored links are advertisements; and
Google merely communicated the representations made by advertisers, without adopting or endorsing any of those representations

This is the matter in which one of the sponsored links was for Xbox360, which appeared when users searched for "playstation2". The court held that the publication of the sponsored link was misleading, but that Google was not involved in the contravention.

The court's reasons for decision are published at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2011/1086.html

Patent Case - non-patentable subject matter

2011-08-30T20:23:00.002+10:00

Cybersource v Retail Decisions was decided on 16 August 2011. It decided that a certain Internet process was not patentable subject matter.

CyberSource is the owner by assignment of a patent, which recites a “method and system for detecting fraud in a credit card transaction between [a] consumer and a merchant over the Internet.” Claim 3 of the patent recites a process for verifying the validity of credit card transactions over the Internet.

"We are not persuaded by the appellant’s argument that the claimed method is tied to a particular machine because it “would not be necessary or possible without the Internet.” Appellant’s Br. 42. Regardless of whether “the Internet” can be viewed as a machine, it is clear that the Internet cannot perform the fraud detection steps of the claimed method. Moreover, while claim 3 describes a method of analyzing data regarding Internet credit card transactions, nothing in claim 3 requires an infringer to use the Internet to obtain that data (as opposed to obtain- ing the data from a pre-compiled database). The Internet is merely described as the source of the data. We have held that mere “[data-gathering] step[s] cannot make an otherwise nonstatutory claim statutory.”

My Blog is Paying My Bills

2011-05-31T18:50:00.002+10:00

Further to the class last night, have a look at:

My Blog is Paying My Bills in the NY Times.

Don't forget to click on the Google Ads here ---->

Last Class!

2011-05-26T23:03:00.004+10:00

Next Monday is the last class for this semester.

The reading for this class is the following:

Google Wallet

Google - Oracle patent lawsuit and here

Android Tracking Lawsuit

Limewire settlement

Pharmacies

Free Speech on Twitter

2011-05-23T20:28:00.001+10:00

From the NYTimes:

SAN FRANCISCO — What began as seamy gossip about an affair between a famous British soccer player and a reality TV star has quickly become another test over how far the rights to privacy and free speech extend online, where social media operate in countries with vastly different laws.

The soccer player has been granted a so-called super-injunction, a stringent and controversial British legal measure that prevents media outlets from identifying him, reporting on the story or even from revealing the existence of the court order itself.

But tens of thousands of Internet users have flouted the injunction by revealing his name on Twitter, Facebook and online soccer forums, sites that blur the definition of the press and are virtually impossible to police.

Last week, amid growing outrage in Britain over the use of super-injunctions, the athlete obtained a court order in British High Court demanding that Twitter reveal the identities of the anonymous users who had posted the messages. A Twitter spokesman, Matt Graves, said the company could not comment on the court order or how it planned to respond.

Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, said, “It’s really going to the core of Twitter’s service and trying to balance the speech of its users and the fact that countries have different laws and norms about speech.”

Full story here.

Online contracting, creation of websites

2011-05-20T14:00:00.003+10:00

e-commerce
What impact does the Electronic Transactions Act have on e-commerce / online contracting?
In this area you should also look at:
the Queensland legislation
UNCITRAL Model
UN Convention

Standard forms of agreement
Website terms of use - look at a few examples including Great South East; Microsoft. What are the common clauses? Anything strange? What impact does Unfair Contracts legislation have on these contracts?
Click wrap v Shrink wrap - what are the differences?
Case summaries

Setting up a website
What should you be aware of (having regarding to previous lectures)?

Rogue Websites

2011-05-15T18:01:00.002+10:00

On May 12, 2011, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sponsored S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP Act), a bill to deter, prevent and root out websites that profit from trafficking in stolen content.

See MPAA's view and Global Intellectual Property Center

Week 10 - Copyright

2011-05-12T12:08:00.000+10:00

Legislation
International treaties - Berne Convention
The law in Australia - Copyright Act, and amendments related to the internet - Computer Programs Act 1999, Digital Agenda Act 2000, US Free Trade 2004

Australian Cases - piracy and copyright
Kazaa
MP3s4free
Stevens v Sony
Newspaper headlines
iiNet

US Cases
Napster
Grokster
Limewire
YouTube

UK
Newzbin

Policy Issues
Balancing interests of copyright owner and users - Electronic Frontiers Australia
Licensing through Creative Commons

End of Voluntary Internet Filtering Program in Australia

2011-05-11T20:52:00.001+10:00

See The Australian

THE Gillard government will scrap its voluntary internet filtering grants program to save $9.6 million over three years.

A combination of reasons led to the decision, including moves by Telstra, Optus and Primus to voluntarily block child abuse websites.

"Consultation with industry has identified limited interest in the grants due to the increasing range of filtering technologies readily available to online users, including browser and search engine filters," the government says in the 2011-12 budget papers.

"Savings from this measure will be redirected to support other government priorities."

Labor intends to introduce mandatory ISP internet filtering -- a policy championed by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy -- once a government review is completed.

Treasurer Wayne Swan's fourth budget today is aimed at delivering $22 billion in savings to meet the government's surplus target in 2012-13.

Google News - Copyright Violation in Belgium

2011-05-10T09:05:00.002+10:00

The Belgian Court of Appeal has ruled that Google has infringed the copyright of Belgian newspapers, by placing links and portions of articles on Google News. Read more here

Competition Law Issues

2011-05-09T22:39:00.001+10:00

Michael Laufert, working with the ABA Communication and Digital Technologies Industries Committee, has put together a website devoted to antitrust and collaboration issues facing tech industries. Common topics are patent pooling, standard setting and the like. His site, "Collaboration and Competition in Technology," is available at the link below or through CDTI's page on the Section's website:

http://apps.americanbar.org/dch/comadd.cfm?com=AT328100&pg=1

Data theft

2011-05-05T17:17:00.002+10:00

Sony - Details of more than 100m users stolen; Sony faces US congressional hearing; Claims file "Anonymous" left on server.

Week 9 - Domain Name Disputes and Cybersquatting

2011-05-05T15:48:00.005+10:00

What is cybersquatting?

Dispute resolution
What are the 3 elements of a UDRP proceeding?
Is the auDRP identical?

UDRP process
Read the case of simplybusiness.com and jappy.com (in relation to element 3) - which view do you agree with?
Read the cases of sermosucks.com and natwestbanksucks.com (in relation to criticism sites) - which view do you agree with?

Discussion
For this lecture, everyone should be prepared to discuss one case with the rest of the class - search here, or for interesting issues and WIPO's preferred views, here
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the UDRP/auDRP process?

Get Your Data Back

2011-04-25T17:52:00.000+10:00

Here is a guiding principle: If a business collects data on consumers electronically, it should provide them with a version of that data that is easy to download and export to another Web site. Think of it this way: you have lent the company your data, and you’d like a copy for your own use.

See full story

Location Tracking

2011-04-25T17:50:00.001+10:00

Google said Friday that it collected location data from Android phones, but that it did so anonymously and with user consent. The company said it gathered the data to provide services like maps and searches for shops or restaurants near a person’s location. The company said it also used the information to estimate traffic on various roads.

“Phones know where you are, and they need to for many of the services we offer,” said Mike Nelson, a Google spokesman.

Full Story Here.

Mobile Google

2011-04-25T17:49:00.001+10:00

Google said in October that mobile ads were on track to generate $1 billion in revenue in the coming year. Mobile users can call a business from within a Google ad or receive coupons for nearby stores. They can take cellphone photos of movie posters to pull up a trailer. With new technologies like near-field communication, advertisers could reward customers with loyalty gifts for walking into stores, Mr. Temsamani said.

See NYTimes

Poker Play

2011-04-16T09:02:00.005+10:00

"IN ANOTHER era, Daniel Tzvetkoff would have been whacked - shot or garroted, buried in a shallow grave or sent to sleep with the fishes. The world's two biggest online gambling companies, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, which want the $US100 million they believe the former Gold Coast high-flyer took from them, don't work that way.

They send their lawyers. Or they just wait. But Tzvetkoff, incredibly, has used his position from inside a US jail to, first, free himself, and then go on the offensive against the very people who are chasing him.

The Queensland internet entrepreneur, 28, was mysteriously bailed from a US federal prison last August. He has rolled to save his neck.

US federal prosecutors are using Tzvetkoff's unique inside knowledge of how big online gambling companies shift money out of the US in exchange for a sweet deal."

See Courier Mail front page story

"ASSOCIATES of former internet high-flyer Daniel Tzvetkoff have been charged after a flurry of arrests in the US over illegal online gaming following his release last year from a New York prison.

US judges have sealed the files on Mr Tzvetkoff's criminal case, after he was secretly released from prison -- without a bail hearing -- on charges he was involved in a $500 million money-laundering scheme for illegal online poker sites.

Secrecy now surrounds the former Gold Coast-based entrepreneur's movements, with prosecutors refusing to disclose if they are going ahead with the charges that carry a 24-year jail term."

The Australian

The owners of three of the largest Internet poker companies operating in the United States were accused Friday of tricking regulators and banks into processing billions of dollars of illegal Internet gambling proceeds.

Eleven people including the owners of Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and PokerStars were charged with violating anti-Internet gambling laws, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Prosecutors also filed a civil money laundering complaint seeking to recover at least $3 billion from the companies, which are all based overseas, court documents said.

In addition, according to the government statement, restraining orders were issued against more than 75 bank accounts used by the poker companies and their payment processors. And the Internet domain names of the companies were also seized.

NY Times

Week 8: Internet Patents

2011-04-12T22:53:00.003+10:00

Reading for the Internet patent class:

Social Media Alarm Bells

2011-04-08T20:49:00.000+10:00

See The Age

In an age in which one negative online review can destroy brands, social media has become one of the top risks keeping C-level executives up at night, a survey of 446 major Australian corporations and public sector organisations has found.

Hilton Hacked

2011-04-05T22:24:00.000+10:00

From an email from Hilton Hotels:

Dear Customer:

We were notified by our database marketing vendor, Epsilon, that we are among a group of companies affected by a data breach. How will this affect you? The company was advised by Epsilon that the files accessed did not include any customer financial information, and Epsilon has stressed that the only information accessed was names and e-mail addresses. The most likely impact, if any, would be receipt of unwanted e-mails. We are not aware at this time of any unsolicited e-mails (spam) that are related, but as a precaution, we want to remind you of a couple of tips that should always be followed:

• Do not open e-mails from senders you do not know

• Do not share personal information via e-mail

List of Cases

2011-04-05T21:08:00.003+10:00

The EFF has an interesting list of U.S. Internet law cases. See

https://www.eff.org/cases/

Week 7: Liability of ISPs and Infrastructure Providers

2011-04-05T20:50:00.005+10:00

This class deals with liability of intermediaries. For example, is an ISP liable for the conduct of its users? Is a web hosting company liable for the content of others that it hosts? Is TripAdvisor liable for reviews of hotels posted by users? Is Google liable for the content that appears on this blog?

Should such intermediaries be liable for the actions of others?

The main reading for the class is the iiNet case:

Also, read the following:

Bunt case
Cooper case
ACCC v Allergy Pathways and ACCC Press Release
Stratton Oakmont and follow-up
Communications Decency Act section 230
Google's liability for AdWords
YouTube and note and Summary Judgment
TripAdvisor: Terms; Restaurant Gives Up; tips; and Findlaw note

Google Buys Nortel's patent portfolio

2011-04-05T20:45:00.000+10:00

Bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp. has accepted Google Inc.'s $900 million stalking horse bid to buy an intellectual property lode of some 6,000 patents and patent applications that include wireless, data networking and semiconductor technology, the Internet giant said Monday.

See BBC and Google Blog

Week 6: Content Regulation

2011-03-29T21:29:00.004+10:00

This class will focus on laws and current issues relating to the regulation of content on the Internet.

Should freedom of speech on the Internet prevail over protection of the public interest? Does the public need to be protected? What is the difference between censorship and regulation?

What are the relevant public interests? Who decides?

Should there by government regulation, or reliance on technology (such as NetNanny), or parental responsibility (e.g., see Google's Family Safety Centre)?

Reading:

Canadian hate speech decision
Racial Discrimination Act section 18C
Westboro Baptist Church: article and protest and decision
Is Cyberspace Burning?

Jurisdiction: Penguin v. American Buddha

2011-03-28T20:12:00.002+10:00

See this decision from the highest court in NY: Penguin Group v. American Buddha

The case concerns whether NY courts have jurisdiction in a copyright case, involving a website controlled and located out of NY State. The Court decided that the situs of the injury was the location of the copyright holder -- i.e., in New York.

Spam Crime and Phishing (Week 5)

2011-03-26T07:16:00.004+10:00

For this lecture we will be discussing:

Spam
Australian legislation - Spam Act 2003
How many prosecutions have been brought in Australia? Is the Spam Act an effective deterrent?
ACMA
IIA Spam Code
US (CAN SPAM Act) and recent court action by Microsoft
What other jurisdictions have enacted Spam legislation?
Spam Laws

Crime
AFP - e-crime
Lack of reporting?
Hacking examples

Phishing
Phishing attacks - Westpac ATO Canada CRA
Top 10 countries for phishing
Anti-phishing website

Keywords in Europe

2011-03-25T18:13:00.003+10:00

Extract from legal newsletter, IBLS:

The latest advocate general opinion on keywords advertising could, if followed by the European court, have a significant impact on Google’s advertising model. The advocate general’s opinion in Interflora v M&S advises that a trademark owner can take action against an advertiser who attempts to benefit from the attractive force of the proprietor’s mark. This is the first time that such a high court has opined on a dispute between a trademark owner and advertiser, rather than examining Google’s role – but it could deter advertisers from bidding on others’ trademarks.

The advocate general states that trademark use as a keyword can be forbidden under Article 5(2) of the European Trademarks Directive if “the advertiser attempts thereby to benefit from its power of attraction, its reputation or its prestige, and to exploit the marketing effort expended by the proprietor of that mark in order to create and maintain the image of that mark”.

Yesterday evening a crowd gathered at University College London for a seminar on the future of advertising function of the trademark. Although the speakers were in the dark about the advocate general’s opinion in Interflora, they nevertheless provided insight that takes on a new light today. For instance, this latest opinion continues the court’s flirtation with the advertising function, which could disappoint Annette Kur, one of last night’s speakers and co-author of the recent study into the European trademark system. “Including the advertising function into reasoning under Article 5(2) TMD is unnecessary and dangerous,” she said, advising brand owners to forget about trying to use the advertising function to gain protection beyond the established function of the trademark. “Stick to what you know,” she said.

Trademark owners will have to wait some time for the court’s judgment in Interflora.

See also FT

TripAdvisor and Crime

2011-03-25T17:59:00.000+10:00

"To our travel community: This past weekend we discovered that an unauthorized third party had stolen part of TripAdvisor's member email list. We've confirmed the source of the vulnerability and shut it down. We're taking this incident very seriously and are actively pursuing the matter with law enforcement. How will this affect you? In many cases, it won't. Only a portion of all member email addresses were taken, and all member passwords remain secure. You may receive some unsolicited emails (spam) as a result of this incident. The reason we are going directly to you with this news is that we think it's the right thing to do. As a TripAdvisor member, I would want to know. Unfortunately, this sort of data theft is becoming more common across many industries, and we take it extremely seriously. I'd also like to reassure you that TripAdvisor does not collect members' credit card or financial information, and we never sell or rent our member list. We will continue to take all appropriate measures to keep your personal information secure at TripAdvisor. I sincerely apologize for this incident and appreciate your membership in our travel community. Steve Kaufer
Co-founder and CEO More information"

Law Dog

2011-03-25T17:57:00.000+10:00

Yale's dog: Click here.

Content Regulation - Government Launches Classification Review

2011-03-24T22:19:00.002+10:00

See ABC article

"The Minister responsible for classification, Brendan O'Connor, said technology is fast moving and the review will examine how the classification can cater for further advances into the future.

"A lot has changed in recent years. Australians now access content through the Internet and mobile phones and that poses challenges for the existing classification scheme," Mr O'Connor said. "We're also seeing the convergence of different technology platforms and the worldwide accessibility of some content, which also creates new concerns," he said.

"Australians need to be confident that our classification system will help them make informed choices about what they choose to read, see, hear and play," Mr O'Connor said. "That's particularly important for parents who rely on the National Classification Scheme to make sensible choices for their children," he said."

Google Copyright Settlement Rejected

2011-03-23T20:37:00.001+10:00

Google infringes copyright on a grand scale.

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."

U.S. Patent Case

2011-03-22T20:57:00.005+10:00

The recent U.S. case of CLS Bank v. Alice addresses patent eligibility requirements  for computer-implemented business and financial methods.

Alice is an Australian company that owns four United States patents; it asserts that CLS infringes these four patents. CLS is an “Edge Act Corporation,” organized under Section 25A of the Federal Reserve Act, as amended, 12 U.S.C. § 611, and authorized by statute to engage in international banking activities.

Summary provided by the U.S. law firm that represented the successful party: On March 9, 2011, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed all claims of patent infringement brought under four patents directed to computer-implemented methods, systems, and products for exchanging a financial obligation, because each of the patent claims was directed to an “abstract idea” and was invalid because it was directed to non-patentable subject matter. The decision is significant because, among other things, it addressed numerous questions left unanswered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in Bilski v. Kappos, 130 S. Ct. 3218 (2010). This Client Alert reviews the decision and the significance the decision may have on the scope of the abstract idea exception that had not been addressed either by the Federal Circuit or by the Supreme Court in their respective Bilski decisions.

Seizure of Domain Names

2011-03-22T20:48:00.003+10:00

A post from a student:

"Earlier this year an Act was passed by the US government (Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act) which specifically allows the seizure of any website which has been "'primarily designed' to offer goods and services in violation of the Copyright Act and / or the Lanham Act".

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

Marketing Issues with Social Media

2011-03-22T20:46:00.001+10:00

ADVERTISING: When the Marketing Reach of Social Media Backfires  What happens when behavior on social media is deemed antisocial?  Full story here.

Social Networks Seminar

2011-03-22T20:42:00.003+10:00

There is an expensive seminar on 1 April regarding social networks.

"As the flames of revolution in the Middle East continue to be fanned by Facebook groups and a chorus of tweets, our panel of international experts tackles the massive potential and limitations of social technologies.

Together they will take a look at the role social media is playing in bringing about true democracy, challenging conventional economies and helping the scientific community accelerate research."

Details here if interested.

The Evolving Mission of Google

2011-03-22T20:40:00.000+10:00

THE MEDIA EQUATION: The Evolving Mission of Google  Google will tell you insistently that it is not a media company — it organizes and manages content, but does not produce it. Watch closely.  See NY Times article

Privacy - Week 4

2011-03-16T14:20:00.006+10:00

Australia
Office of Australian Information Commissioner - look at the Privacy Act and Privacy Principles.
What legislative changes have been proposed for Australian privacy laws?
You should also be aware of relevant case law in this area - is there a right to privacy at common law?
Privacy Foundation

International rights
Art 17 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Privacy Policies
Do you understand/agree to all of these terms?
Amazon
Disney

Cookies
Cookie Central

Google
Google Maps
Legal responses - Australia; USA; Czech Republic; Germany. What are some other responses from around the world, particularly in relation to the Street View data collection issue?

Facebook
No longer a social norm?

Solutions
TrustE

A New Privacy Law? and See U.S. Senate hearing and Europe

Internet business models

2011-03-16T12:01:00.000+10:00

Article on price fixing issues for ebooks - see here.

Keyword Decision in California

2011-03-12T14:51:00.002+10:00

See Network Automation v. Advanced Systems Concepts

"Here we consider whether the use of another’s trademark as a search engine keyword to trigger one’s own product advertisement violates the Lanham Act. ...

Given the nature of the alleged infringement here, the most relevant factors to the analysis of the likelihood of con- fusion are: (1) the strength of the mark; (2) the evidence of actual confusion; (3) the type of goods and degree of care likely to be exercised by the purchaser; and (4) the labeling and appearance of the advertisements and the surrounding context on the screen displaying the results page.

The district court did not weigh the Sleekcraft factors flexibly to match the specific facts of this case. It relied on the Internet “troika,” which is highly illuminating in the context of domain names, but which fails to discern whether there is a likelihood of confusion in a keywords case. Because the linchpin of trademark infringement is consumer confusion, the district court abused its discretion in issuing the injunction. "

Class 3 - Internet Jurisdiction

2011-03-10T23:05:00.002+10:00

The next class is Internet jurisdiction. In addition to the notes in the Study Guide, please read the following:

Wikipedia introduction and personal jurisdiction

Sliding Scale Test:

Zippo case

Effects Test:

Calder v. Jones (US Supreme Court)

Application of Effects Test:

Ubid v. GoDaddy

Weather Underground case (and complete court file for this case if interested)

Article

Trademark and Calder Test

Australian approach:

Dow Jones v. Gutnick (High Court of Australia)

[Defamation - including Internet cases - background information if interested]

Comment: Determining Internet Jurisdiction

Queensland Police information

Could two courts come to an inconsistent result in the same case:

See The Secret litigation

Background: The Australian

Australian Trial Judge Decision
Full Court of Federal Court Decision

Note regarding US decision on jurisdiction

See also prior posts if interested, for example.

Australian Domain Names

2011-03-08T20:16:00.001+10:00

Australia’s Internet community celebrated a significant milestone last night with the registration of the two millionth .au domain name.

UDRP - Bad Faith Registration

2011-03-07T20:58:00.005+10:00

In a UDRP proceeding against a cybersquatter, the Complainant has to prove three elements. The third element is bad faith registration and use. Some decisions have interpreted this requirement as being bad faith registration only. However, the traditional view that both bad faith registration and bad faith use is required, was supported, by majority, in the recent SimplyBusiness.com decision.

Keywords in Canada

2011-03-07T20:38:00.003+10:00

Last month (February 2011) in Private Career Training Institutions Agency v Vancouver Career College (Burnaby) Inc, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia refused to grant an injunction preventing the use of names of competitors in Google and Yahoo keywords as part of internet advertising.

iCyte

2011-03-03T21:03:00.002+10:00

When you are doing electronic research on the Internet, the iCyte tool is useful. See www.icyte.com. You can use it to save and annotate your research. It is free for students.

Week 2 - Google and Social Media

2011-03-03T21:01:00.003+10:00

On Monday we will be looking at the business models of companies who operate primarily on the Internet. We will look at the rules you must comply with when using their sites (in addition to all other laws that apply), and the benefits/criticisms of their business models. In particular, we will focus on Google and Facebook, but will also try to cover Amazon, eBay and Twitter. You should be familar with the products/services offered by these companies, and their terms and conditions.

What are the risks of doing business with these organisations?

For some background you can look at:

Don't Be Evil

Google Product Offerings

Google Watch

Google Book Project

AdWords - Australia

Facebook and Privacy

Click fraud

Endorsements - US position

Study guides

2011-03-01T13:31:00.002+10:00

For those in the class asking about study guides, paper copies have been mailed to you, and you should receive them within the next few days. In the meantime, you can access an electronic copy under the "Learning Resources" tab of the Blackboard site.

Article on Domain Name Law

2011-02-27T17:55:00.001+10:00

See this brief article that I wrote as an introduction to domain name law.

7s Domain Name Decision

2011-02-26T15:00:00.003+10:00

Is it cybersquatting to point a domain name to a website that has no relationship with the semantic meaning of the domain name?

See 7(s) v. Luo decision

Discussion: Domain Name Wire

Patenting Business Methods

2011-02-26T14:51:00.002+10:00

Review of patentable subject matter in Australia

The Australian Advisory Council on Intellectual Property has released its review of patentable subject matter. The Advisory Council is an independent body appointed by the government, and advises the Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research on intellectual property matters.

Click here to view the report

Click here to view the Advisory Council's Media Release

Chasing Pirates

2011-02-26T14:49:00.000+10:00

See Inside Microsoft's War Room

Copyright in databases

2011-02-26T14:46:00.002+10:00

In December 2010, the Full Federal Court decided that there was no copyright in White Pages and Yellow Pages telephone directories.

Chief Justice Keane was convinced by the respondents argument that the White and Yellow Pages “were compiled, not by the individuals engaged to facilitate the process, but by a computerised process of storing, selecting, ordering and arranging the data to produce the directories in the form in which they were published.” [7-8]

See Australian Copyright Council note

For the full decision, see http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2010/149.html

iiNet copyright case - Full Federal Court Appeal Decision

2011-02-25T20:33:00.002+10:00

iiNet succeeded in its appeal, but on narrower grounds. The case concerns whether an ISP is liable for copyright infringement of its users.

See case, and SMH article, and ZDnet

Google Modifies Its Algorithm

2011-02-25T20:31:00.001+10:00

Google has changed its algorithm that returns search results, to remove content farm websites. See NYT.

Fined For Conduct of Facebook Fans

2011-02-22T20:46:00.001+10:00

In his judgment Justice Finkelstein held that: "while it cannot be said that Allergy Pathway was responsible for the initial publication of testimonials (the original publisher was the third party who posted the testimonials on Allergy Pathway's Twitter and Facebook pages) it is appropriate to conclude that Allergy Pathway accepted responsibility for the publications when it knew of them and decided not to remove them. Hence it became the publisher of the testimonials."

In responding to the judgment, ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said: "Many corporations now use Facebook "Fan" pages and Twitter accounts to promote their businesses. This outcome confirms that any business that decides to leave public testimonials or other comments on their Facebook and Twitter pages will be held responsible if they are false, misleading or deceptive."

See ACCC Press Release

ACCC v. Allergy Pathway [2011] FCA 74

Use of Domain Names is Passing Off - UK Decision

2011-02-22T20:42:00.002+10:00

In Lifestyle Management Ltd v Frater, a former agent of Lifestyle Management Ltd has been found by the UK High Court, on an application for an interim injunction, to have committed acts of passing off by pointing certain domain names to websites that closely resembled his former principal's website.

Keywords abuse - damages of $292,000

2011-02-22T20:39:00.002+10:00

A law firm specialising in disability claims was awarded $292,000 by a California court, because of a competitor’s use of its mark as a Google AdWord.

See Binder v. Disability Group

Article: A Game Changer?

Domain Name Decision

2011-02-22T20:37:00.001+10:00

Recent domain name decision regarding bad faith.

Prime Pictures v. DigiMedia

The Law Firm of the Future

2011-02-22T20:33:00.002+10:00

An interesting article about legal services.

Also, an article about Twitter and law firms.

Internet Law Resource Centre

2011-02-13T11:45:00.001+10:00

BNA has launched its Internet Law Resource Centre. It costs a heap of money, but there is a 15 day free trial.

Manipulating Google Search Results

2011-02-13T11:38:00.002+10:00

The NY Times has a very good story about how JC Penney manipulated Google search engine results. Google did not catch this until the NYT pointed this out. Once Google decided to act, Google manually changed the results. For many searches, JC Penny went from 1st place to about 75th place.

See Search Optimisation and Its Dirty Little Secrets.

Google and Charity

2011-01-30T20:14:00.000+10:00

Google Finds It Hard to Reinvent Philanthropy. See NY Times story.

LWN117 Offered in Semester 1, 2011

2011-01-09T15:11:00.002+10:00

Cyberlaw and Policy LWN117 will be offered in first semester 2011 at QUT. See course details.

Is Law School A Losing Game?

2011-01-09T15:06:00.003+10:00

See this story from the U.S. To what extent is the situation the same in Australia?

Online Surveys

2010-11-07T20:42:00.001+10:00

See SMH

Google and Privacy

2010-10-31T14:32:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday, the FTC closed its investigation of Google for its collection of data from unsecured wireless networks that may have violated privacy rules.  Google’s changes to its procedures and policies address the FTC’s concerns according to a letter from the FTC to Google:  http://www.ftc.gov/os/closings/101027googleletter.pdf

No Copyright In This Headline

2010-09-07T21:00:00.003+10:00

The Federal Court of Australia decided today that newspaper headlines are not protected by copyright. How will this impact Google News?

Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 984 (7 September 2010)

See Mallesons Alert

The Australian

BusinessWeek

Fake Consumer Reviews

2010-09-04T11:24:00.000+10:00

On the consumer protection front, the FTC settled charges that a public relations agency engaged in deceptive advertising â€œby having employees pose as ordinary consumers posting game reviews at the online iTunes store, and not disclosing that the reviews came from paid employees working on behalf of the developers. This activity was in violation of the FTC's Revised Endorsement Guidelines which require disclosure. The PR firm, Reverb Communications, is required to take down the fraudulent postings and bars them from making similar postings in the future without appropriate disclosures.

Press release: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/08/reverb.shtm

Links to Complaint and Consent Order: http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0923199/index.shtm

Information on the FTC's Revised Endorsement Guidelines (16 CFR Part 255): http://ftc.gov/multimedia/video/business/endorsement-guides.shtm

Google and Privacy

2010-09-04T11:22:00.001+10:00

A video cartoon featuring Google's chief giving away ice-cream to snoop on children aired on a giant screen in Times Square today as a privacy group continued to hound the internet giant.

Consumer Watchdog took its gripes with Google to the centre of Manhattan, where it paid to have a "Don't be evil?" animated clip shown on a "Jumbotron" screen above the masses coursing through Times Square.

Full story

Changes to Laws In Australia involving licensing software to consumers

2010-08-30T22:21:00.001+10:00

Have a look at the Mallesons blog.

Who does this affect?

The new laws raise issues for all software licences with Australian end-customers where either:

the software is "of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption"; or
the amount paid or payable for the software is $A40,000 or less.

Those end-customers are taken to be "consumers" by the ACL, even if they are multinational corporations or government entities well-equipped to negotiate to protect their interests.

Software Licensing

2010-08-06T20:51:00.000+10:00

Is the software installed on your computer something you own -- or did you simply buy a "license" to use it? That's the issue at the heart of Vernor v. Autodesk Inc., a case argued Monday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that represents a broad challenge to the software industry's fundamental business model.

See law.com

U.S. Patent Office Guidelines for patentable subject matter

2010-08-06T20:47:00.002+10:00

See article at this U.S. law firm website.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) published Interim Guidance on 27 July 2010, for evaluating method claims for subject-matter eligibility under § 101 of the Patent Act. This guidance follows the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Bilski v. Kappos.

Manifesto on internet policy and regulation

2010-07-28T22:57:00.000+10:00

The IIA recently launched its "manifesto on internet policy and regulation, with principles and recommendations to guide decision making".

A PDF copy of the guide is available at

http://iia.net.au/images/resources/pdf/manifesto-2010.pdf

"We'll be requesting political parties to respond to its recommendations over the coming weeks," IIA chief executive, Peter Coroneos, said.

"It asks the question, under what circumstances can the Internet in Australia be advanced or hobbled by politicians today."

The report argues that the speed of technological change

outstrips the ability of legislation and legislators to keep up.

"Should or can they, regulate the internet to tackle social

policy challenges arising in the wake of rapid technological

change without damaging our capacity to innovate and compete?

If laws are passed, can they be enforced?

Is technology to blame or are we really dealing with age old

human problems that neither laws nor technology can regulate?

These are questions implicit in this document," Coroneos said.

The document offers a reality check to the internet policy debate by urging a return to first principles such as where Australia stands against our western counterparts. It argues we tend to over-regulated in content matters for often symbolic political reasons.

"We lack a local research base to support proposals notably in areas of cyber crime and cyber safety," he said.

Business Method Patents - U.S. Supreme Court takes wide view

2010-06-29T12:42:00.002+10:00

See today's decision in the Bilski case.

NYT article

YouTube and DMCA

2010-06-29T00:04:00.002+10:00

YouTube wins copyright case, and found to be protected by DMCA.

See Mallesons and NYT

Last Class

2010-05-30T19:49:00.002+10:00

The last class is Monday night, 31 May.

The class will go for about an hour, then we may go for a drink/pizza etc.

In this class, I can answer any questions that you may have.

We will also discuss legal issues concerning eBay and (if time) Facebook.

Please read:

eBay - reimbursement re bankruptcy of seller

2010-05-29T08:17:00.001+10:00

Have a look at:

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/internet/20100527-ebay-australia-sets-up-special-fund-for-victims-of-collapses-online-travel-company.html

in light of

this note.

Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo

2010-05-29T07:57:00.001+10:00

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.

Communications Law to be Reviewed

2010-05-25T20:57:00.001+10:00

Two top Democratic legislators said Monday that they would begin a process to modernize telecommunications laws that were last overhauled in 1996 but barely mention the Internet.

NY Times

Break Up Google?

2010-05-23T17:19:00.003+10:00

Google is the “arbiter of every single thing on the Web, and it favors its properties over everyone else’s,” said Mr. Reback, sitting in a Washington cafe with the couple. “What it wants to do is control Internet traffic. Anything that undermines its ability to do that is threatening.”

See NY Times for full story.

ISP Liaibility

2010-05-22T13:06:00.005+10:00

The main reading for the class on Monday, 24 May is the iiNet case:

Also: The Bunt case

High level note

Privacy - Proposed New Law in U.S.A.

2010-05-22T13:04:00.000+10:00

U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher (VA-09), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and Cliff Stearns, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, released a discussion draft of legislation to assure the privacy of information about individuals both on the Internet and offline.

Details

References

2010-05-19T21:13:00.000+10:00

This website has some useful links and references:

http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/article-index/rights-and-laws-of-the-internet/

Google Says It Collected Private Data by Mistake

2010-05-15T10:22:00.003+10:00

"Google said on Friday that for more than three years it had inadvertently collected snippets of private information that people send over unencrypted wireless networks. The admission, made in an official blog post by Alan Eustace, Google’s engineering chief, comes a month after regulators in Europe started asking the search giant pointed questions about Street View, the layer of real-world photographs accessible from Google Maps. Regulators wanted to know what data Google collected as its camera-laden cars methodically trolled through neighborhoods, and what Google did with that data."

Full story in NYTimes

Copyright class

2010-05-14T09:01:00.004+10:00

This lecture will give a brief overview of copyright law generally. For some background, see:

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