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Archive for the ‘General’ CategoryACMA issues landmark proceedingsTuesday, March 2nd, 2010 In a landmark move, the ACMA has for the first time brought an action in the Federal Court against Telco GoTalk for an alleged breaches of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006. The ACMA alleges that GoTalk via its two offshore calls centres called 40,000 numbers contained on the Do Not Call Register. Breaches of this kind have proven to be costly for infringing companies in the past, with Dodo Australia being issued a fine of $147 400 in 2008 for its call centres ringing 67 de-listed Australian phone numbers. This isn’t the first sign of trouble for GoTalk. Last year the company accepted undertakings by the ACCC to record telemarketing calls and to monitor conversations at random to ensure compliance with the TPA, in response to allegations that its offshore call centres had misrepresented information to consumers, including pricing and terms and conditions. The matter is listed for directions on 29 March 2010 in the Federal Court in Sydney. Tags: ACMA, Do Not Call Register, Do Not Register Call Act, GoTalk, ISP lawyer, ISP Lawyers, IT Lawyers, telecommunications lawyer, Telecommunications Lawyers AFACT to appeal iiNet judgmentThursday, February 25th, 2010 Reports today indicate that AFACT has sought leave to appeal the landmark copyright infringement judgment handed down against it, earlier this month. This comes on the back of a notice of motion filed by AFACT against iiNet with the Federal Court on 18 February 2010 – that motion is scheduled to be heard by the Court on 4 May 2010. We will keep you posted once more information is to hand. Tags: AFACT, copyright infringement, copyright law, iiNet, IP Law, IP lawyer, IP lawyers, isp law, ISP lawyer, ISP Lawyers iiNet wins landmark caseThursday, February 4th, 2010 Justice Cowdry of the Federal Court of Australia this morning brought down judgment in the iiNet copyright case, in which the Australian ISP was successful. It was alleged by 34 applicants made up of film studios such as Sony and Warner Bros that iiNet had facilitated copyright infringement, by allowing customers to use peer to peer software to download pirate versions of movies and other copyrighted material. The Court held that the law did not impose a positive obligation upon iiNet to prevent copyright infringement. The result comes as a slap in the face to the big film studios who had vigorously pursued this case. This case had attracted international attention and had resulted in legislative changes in jurisdictions such as the UK, where ISPs have an obligation to disconnect customer who infringe copyright. ISP Lawyers and Telecommunications Lawyers have for some time been debating the merits of this case – some commentators don’t think that this is the end of the matter, with the films studios having the ability to appeal the judgment on points of law. More to follow……. Tags: iiNet, isp law, ISP Lawyers, IT Lawyers, telecommunications law, Telecommunications Lawyers iPad: Opportunity or Threat?Saturday, January 30th, 2010 Cooper Mills guest author, Senior Brand Strategist, James Grant Hay examines the implications of the device on the Australian media industry and publishing sector Many believe the iPad and iBookstore will do for the publishing industry what the iPod and iTunes store did to the music industry in 2001. Back then, iTunes accelerated the decline of their business model and tore apart the original bundles of records subsequently sold to consumers at unit price. Will our local media industry and publishing sector share the same fate or embrace the iPad as a revolution of the digital age? So far, the signs have been encouraging. The Australian Publishers Association report that Australian publishers have been in extensive talks with Apple over the last few months in an effort to seal licensing deals for Australia. Although the iBookstore is not expected to be available to Australian users on launch, that date is likely to change quickly as the Australian Publishers Association has confirmed licensing deals are well on the way to being completed this year. In the US, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has announced eBook deals with five of the world’s leading publishers – Hachette, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan. These talks have been hastened with the arrival of other eReader devices. Amazon (with its Kindle) and Barnes & Noble (with the Nook) have the potential to diminish the importance of publishing companies altogether through the use of self-publishing platforms by authors. To avoid this, Australian publishers have in the last 12 months been paying a lot of attention to digitisation and preparing for electronic works to ensure plenty of titles are available to Australian consumers. But until a sufficient number of these titles are in place, it will be imperative for the Federal Government to lift the ban on book sellers from buying cheap foreign imports from overseas sellers. Currently, parallel importation rules prevent stores from sourcing books at lower costs from overseas markets. Retailers, such as Borders will need to respond to the growing consumer demand. REDgroup, owners of booksellers Angus & Robertson and Borders – are already planning 1 million titles that can be downloaded across multiple technologies in Australia. The challenge for publishers therefore will be the speed with which they can port their back catalogues to digital. Porting books to the digital world is difficult because entire back catalogues must be digitised in different formats and publishers should seek professional legal advice on redrafting and in some cases renegotiating copyright deals with authors and estates for the purposes of digital distribution. Only two leading publishers have converted Australian print books to digital form in significant numbers – Allen & Unwin has a library of 1500 titles, while Pan Macmillan Australia has 500 titles ready to go digital. Newspapers and magazines are also planning to sell content on the device through digital apps, but The New York Times is the only publisher to have revealed its offering so far. News Ltd spokesman Greg Baxter refused to comment to Australian media on its iPad plans last week, but Brian McCarthy, chief executive of Fairfax Media, has been bullish about the prospects for the new device. The iPad will allow newspapers and magazines to be easily read electronically in a format that many readers will enjoy while also linking pages directly with breaking news and videos on their digital mastheads, such as The Age. Fairfax is reportedly developing apps that could be used on both the iPad and iPhone. With sales of Amazon Kindle devices outstripping actual print book sales in the US over Christmas, the Apple iPad is sure to be a hot seller amongst Australian consumers. Among the questions to be contemplated by publishers over the coming months will be the meaning of their brand in a tablet world – to avoid the fate of the music labels, publishers such as Pacific Magazines will need to determine how to maintain individual brands in their overall stable, rather than individual stories; in other industries, companies will need to decide if the most potent expression of their brand is bundling existing free web products with a premium pay-wall subscription, or in the case of Sports Illustrated below, an entirely new multimedia product. Watch and embed the Sports Illustrated player James Grant Hay is CEO of Inshot, Branded Content Specialists Tags: brand strategy, copyright infringement, copyright law, ipad, IT Law, IT Lawyer, IT Lawyers, James Grant Hay Happy Holidays – Seasons GreetingsSunday, December 27th, 2009 To all of our clients and visitors to our blog, we wish you seasons greetings and a safe and prosperous new year. Thank you for your support in 2009, and we look forward to working with you in 2010. Our office will be re-open on 11 January 2010. Stay tuned for our new IT Law, Telecommunications Law, Domain Law and general Commercial Law articles / posts. Tags: Commercial Law, domain law, domain name law, IT Law, telecommunications law 4G network to go liveWednesday, December 16th, 2009
Telecommunications Company TeliaSonera has said it is recruiting customers to pilot its new 4G network in Oslo and Stockholm which will be launched in early 2010. The 4G network is configured around the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, with data speeds of up to 100 megabits per second, which is significantly faster than existing 3G networks. The 4G roll out has be designed to easily deploy by overlaying existing 3G infrastructure. Customers will initially connect to the network via a Samsung B3710 USB dongle and a laptop, as no handsets can yet use the 4G network. The Samsung B3710 lets users download at max speeds of 100Mbps. The B3710 is set to be available in the first half of 2010, in time for the first live customer tests. Handsets that can use LTE are expected in mid-late 2010. Ericsson has constructed the network in Stockholm, Sweden while in Oslo, Norway Chinese firm Huawei is behind the operations. Both networks cover the central regions in both cities. Most operators have committed to upgrading to the faster system, and TeliaSonera expects that the advance is speed will drive the use of many novel applications such as gaming and viewing of video on laptops. Tags: 3G network, 4G network, data network, isp law, ISP Lawyers, IT Law, IT Lawyers, Telco Law, telecommunications law, Telecommunications Lawyers Government approves internet censorshipTuesday, December 15th, 2009 Breaking News – The Federal Government has today confirmed that it has given the green light to internet censorship in Australia. The move comes after its internet filtering trials commenced in January 2009, as we previously reported. Details to follow Tags: internet censorship, ISP Filtering, ISP Lawyers, IT Lawyers, Telecommunications Lawyers New IT Law and Domain Law PostsThursday, December 10th, 2009 We are working on bringing you some more new and interesting IT Law and Domain Law posts and articles shortly. To assist us to cater to our audience, if you have any specific requests for IT Law, Domain Law or Telecommunications Law articles or information, feel free to drop us a note at info@coopermills.com.au Tags: domain law, domain lawyer, IT Law, IT Lawyer, telecommunications law, Telecommunications Lawyers Microsoft throws pirates overboardTuesday, November 17th, 2009 Up to one million users who have modified their Xbox game consoles to play pirated games have blocked from logging onto their online accounts. Microsoft has said that:
Machines which are physically altered by attaching extra chips and other hardware violate Microsoft’s terms of use. Although Microsoft can do little to prevent offenders from using their machines to play pirate games, they can cut of online access which in many cases will cut off access to large parts of the game as more and more titles promote an online play element. Online piracy is becoming an issue of growing concern for the entertainment industry. Industries have to implement new techniques to prevent piracy from occurring. The music and film industry in the UK has lobbied for the new “three strikes” policy which comes into effect in April 2010. This will require ISPs to suspend internet services of those who ignore piracy warnings. These new regulatory measures come as a backdrop to the AFACT/IINET case being fought in The Federal Court, about ISPs allegedly allowing copyright infringers to use ISP services. Tags: domain name lawyers, ISP Lawyers, ISP piracy, IT Lawyers, Telecommunications Lawyers $15.75 Million fine for SMS SpammersSunday, October 25th, 2009 The Federal Court has issued a fine of $15.75 Million against spammers found guilty of using an elaborate scheme to deceptively obtain mobile phone numbers and spam them. In August 2009 the Australian Communications and Media Authority (‘ACMA’) obtained default judgment against Mobilegate Ltd and Winning Bid Pty Ltd – and three individuals – Mr Simon Anthony Owen, Mr Tarek Andreas Salcedo and Mr Glenn Christopher Maughan. The action commenced in late 2008 when the ACMA learned of the highly organised plan, where the ACMA alleges the spammers obtained mobile telephone numbers from dating websites, after posing as members of these websites. It is then alleged that:
The ACMA claims that the spammers obtained more than $2 million from their scheme, which was in contravention of the Spam Act 2003. The judgment is seen as a win for the ACMA in its fight against breaches of the Spam Act 2003, and is sure to serve as a serious warning to potential spammers. Earlier this year the ACMA issued fines against Optus for breaches of the Spam Act 2003, as part of its campaign against spammers. Tags: ACMA, Cooper Mills Lawyers, IT Lawyers, Spam, Spam Act 2003, Spam Lawyers, Telecommunications Lawyers |
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