Google Posts Data as to copyright takedown notices

Google has decided to share its insights on copyright abuse amid a loudening outcry for a crackdown against online piracy that media companies have claimed is collectively costing them billions of dollars each year. The backlash inspired a piece of get-tougher legislation SOPA, that had the backing of most major music and move studios. The proposal caused dismay among major internet companies who feared the law would stifle free speech and innovation. The bill was abandoned four months ago after fierce high-tech opposition that included a one-day blackout of popular websites such as Wikipedia and an online petition drive spearheaded by Google.

See Google Data and SMH article

Privacy Inquiries re Google

From The New York Times:

Google Privacy Inquiries Get Little Cooperation

All sorts of private Internet communications were casually scooped up as Google Street View cars photographed the world’s streets.

http://nyti.ms/Kx4aE2

Wrap up - current issues

John will be travelling interstate on Monday, so Carly will be taking his place for the last lecture.

This lecture will focus on current issues, using Facebook as a marketing case study.  Have a look at the following articles to start with:

IPO articles and here

marketing - 10 examples

marketing tips

facebook marketing bible

What are the risks of using social media as a marketing tool?

Online contracting, creating websites

e-commerce

How is contracting online different to other transactions?  

What special regulations are there / should there be to address these differences?

Consider:

• UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (CUEIC)
• Electronic transactions legislation - Commonwealth, Queensland
• UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce

Ensuring enforceability of online contracts

Consider the differences between shrink wrap, click wrap and browse wrap agreements.

Where do website terms of use fit it?  Consider some examples and the similarities / differences between them.

What is the impact of the unfair contracts legislation?

Establishing and operating websites

What do you need to be aware of (having regard to previous lectures)?

Australian Government's suggestions

Copyright lecture

In this lecture we will focus on a number of important copyright decisions in Australia.  However, you should also be familiar with:

Copyright Act, and amending legislation relevant to the Internet - Computer Programs, Digital Agenda, 2004 amendments

Law reform

Australian cases - Kazaa (piracy), MP3s4free (piracy), Fairfax (newspaper headlines), Ice TV (compilations/databases), Telstra (computer generated compilations), iiNet (ISP liability) and TV Now

US cases - Napster, Grokster 

Recent news items - NSW police/Micro Focus, 92 year old pirate

Copyright/licensing bodies - Electronic Frontiers Australia, Creative Commons

Oracle v Google - verdict

Legal experts decipher Oracle-Google copyright verdict
http://cnet.co/J9Ycz5
Was the jury qualified?  See Washington Post.
More details here.

How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet

Legal and technology researchers estimate that it would take about a month for Internet users to read the privacy policies of all the Web sites they visit in a year. So in the interest of time, here is the deal: You know that dream where you suddenly realize you’re stark naked? You’re living it whenever you open your browser.
...
“Companies like Google are creating these enormous databases using your personal information,” said Paul Hill, senior consultant with SystemExperts, a network security company in Sudbury, Mass. “They may have the best of intentions now, but who knows what they will look like 20 years from now, and by then it will be too late to take it all back.”
See NY Times

info graphic - The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

A Technical Examination of SOPA and PIPA 

By Spencer Belkofer. LLRX.com, April 29, 2012 

http://www.llrx.com/features/sopapipa.htm        

SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA is the Protect IP Act.

Copyright Loss For Optus TV

National Rugby League Investments Pty Limited v Singtel Optus Pty Ltd [2012] FCAFC 59 (27 April 2012)

"The two primary issues raised in the appeals can be stated shortly. The first is: When a cinematograph film (or copy) and a sound recording (or copy) were made when a television broadcast of one of the AFL or NRL matches was recorded for a subscriber, who, for the purposes of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) was the maker of that film, sound recording or copy? Was it Optus or the subscriber (or both of them jointly)? The primary judge’s answer to this was that the maker was the subscriber.

Ours is a different conclusion. The maker was Optus or, in the alternative, it was Optus and the subscriber. It is unnecessary for present purposes to express a definitive view as between the two. Optus could be said to be the maker in that the service it offered to, and did, supply a subscriber was to make and to make available to that person a recording of the football match he or she selected. Alternatively Optus and the subscriber could be said to be the maker for Copyright Act purposes as they acted in concert for the purpose of making a recording of the particular broadcast which the subscriber required to be made and of which he or she initiated the automated process by which copies were produced. In other words, they were jointly and severally responsible for the act of copying. That is our preferred view.

The second question is: If Optus’ act in making such a film would otherwise constitute an infringement of the copyright of AFL, NRL or Telstra, can Optus invoke what we would inaccurately, but conveniently, call the “private and domestic use” defence of s 111 of the Act? The primary judge did not have to consider this, given his answer to the first question.

Our answer is that Optus cannot either as maker alone or as a maker with a subscriber bring itself within the scope of the s 111 exception on its proper construction."

See Comment Here.

Domain names

Discussion for this week's lecture will include:

• what is a domain name? 
• who ultimately controls domain names - what roles do ICANN, auDA play? 
• what legal rights do you have in a domain name?
• how much are domain names worth?
• what is cybersquatting?
• how can you resolve domain name disputes?  Please be familiar with the elements of the UDRP and the auDRP.  Are these processes preferable to court?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
• how would you go about judging a domain name dispute under the UDRP?  Are the decisions consistent?
• what other policies and legal issues impact on an entitlement to domain names?
• new GTLDs