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:

http://www.uspto.gov/patent/laws-and-regulations/examination-policy/2014-interim-guidance-subject-matter-eligibility-0

Please note that there are three Appendices.

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.

Alibaba

The big picture regarding Alibaba.  See NewYorker.

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

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.

Copyright Infringement Detection Service

An interesting service from South Australia, called www.plfer.com.  It is a copyright infringement detection service.  Created by the founder of Davnet.  See story here.

Looking to hire a technology lawyer in Brisbane

See job post here.