In response to harsh new anti-priacy laws proposed in the USA, many websites have gone off line or are displaying black out pages in protest at SOPA.

SOPA is the Stop Internet Piracy Act, which has been championed by Hollywood producers, who claim it is the only way to stop piracy, much to the anger of the internet community. Even some IP Lawyers are opposed to the proposed regime, claiming that it is a step to far.

The proposed introduction of SOPA is seen as a serious threat to free speech on the internet, with US lawmakers proposing to give law enforcement powers to shut down websites almost anywhere in the world, through a variety of mechanisms such as web filtering.

Major websites such as WordPress.org and Wikipedia.org are blacking out in protest.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that the Personal Property Securities (PPS) Register will commence on 30 January 2012.

The PPS has been touted as one of the greatest legal reforms in recent times – the PPS has reformed the way in which personal property securities are registered. The PPS will incorporate all corporate charges currently registered with ASIC.

The PPS was to have commenced operations last year but was delayed.

For the first time the PPS will allow security interests to be registered over intellectual property.

We will write more about the PPS in the coming weeks.

National ISP iiNet has today announced the acquisition of competitor Internode in a $105 million deal.

The acquisition will see iiNet add a further 190,000 broadband DSL subscribers and 260,000 active services. Internode has forecast FY12 earnings of $180 million.

Internode founder and MD Simon Hackett will remain as part of the executive team at Internode.

The acquisition by iiNet will solidify its position as the second largest Australian ISP in the residential broadband DSL market.

The acquisition is due to be completed on 29 February 2012.

.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) the regulator of the .au domain name space today released a review of governance undertaken by Westlake Consulting Ltd and Argo Pacific.

The report is a 107 page report which was prepared after consultation with a broad variety of stakeholders in the .au space including government, and Cooper Mills Lawyers. The report made 15 recommendations to the board including limits on the tenure of Directors and the publication of an Accountability and Transparency Framework.

The issue of Accountability and Transparency has featured prominently in the report, most likely as a result of the perception that auDA was secretive.

Of particular note in the report is a call for improvement in the relationship between government and auDA – earlier this week we reported that the Prime Minister had taken responsibility for Cyber Security from the Attorney General’s Department.

We hope to publish a more comprehensive analysis of the report shortly.

Yesterday saw the Prime Minister reshuffle her cabinet, but in amongst the reshuffle was a one line comment which carried great significance, that is, Cyber Security Policy is now the responsibility of the Prime Minister and no longer that of the Attorney General’s Department.

In her speech the Prime Minister said: ‘Responsibility for cyber security policy will move from the Attorney-General’s portfolio to my portfolio.‘.

This marks an escalation in the importance of cyber security, especially in light of the compromise of the parliamentary email system in March this year.

While responsibility for the area has moved, it is not clear what impact this will have on Cyber Security Policy and whether a shift in focus is planned.

The High Court has today refused Apple’s special leave application to appeal against an earlier Full Federal Court of Australia decision, which lifted an interlocutory injunction original obtained by Apple against Samsung.

Earlier this year, Apple had sought and obtained an interlocutory injunction in the Federal Court against Samsung preventing the sale of its Galaxy 10.1 Tablet computer, a serious competitor to the Apple iPad. On appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court, the injunction was overturned. Apple then made a special leave application (which is the process by which the High Court determines whether it will hear an appeal from the Full Federal Court) to overturn the Full Federal Court’s decision. While Apple was originally granted a reprieve, with the High Court maintaining the injunction until its decision today, the injunction was ultimately lifted when Apple failed in its bid to have the High Court hear the matter.

The effect of today’s decision is that:

1. Samsung is now free to sell its popular Galaxy 10.1 Tablet computer, which has been touted by some as the ‘iPad killer’. The decision came just in time for Samsung to capitalise on the Christmas sales period; and
2. Samsung may now be entitled to sue Apple for damages arising from Apple’s undertaking as to damages (the undertaking is basically a promise to make good any damage which arises from the injunction if a party does not ultimately sustain its grievance in Court). Such an action would involve a potential claim of tens of millions of dollars.

auDA has released the new Transfers (Change of Registrant) Policy (2011-03) to replace the previous transfers policy, following recommendations of the Secondary Market Working Group review.

The new policy eliminates the ’6 month rule’ which prevented the sale of a newly registered domain name until the expiration of 6 months from the date of registration.

While the new policy removes the ’6 month rule’, the policy maintains the restriction that a Registrant may not register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer.

The new policy also, now formally recognises on online paperless domain transfer process offered by some Registrars such as Drop.com.au.

We are often asked, is it possible for someone who isn’t Australian to register .au domains names. The simple answer is yes absolutely!

In Australia we have a requirement that a registrant of a domain name must be ‘eligible’ to hold that domain name.

There is a specific policy which regulates eligibility, this is called the Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules for Open 2LDs (‘the Policy’). As there are tough requirements on registering .org.au, most foreign registrants are likely to only be eligible to hold .net.au and com.au domain names if they are able to satisfy the eligibility requirements.

For foreign registrants these requirements for eligibility (for .com.au and .net.au) have a 2 step process, eligibility and entitlement to register.

Eligibility

To be eligible a foreign registrant must be:

1.  A foreign company licensed to trade in Australia – in order to do this a foreign company must obtain an ARBN which is registration to trade in Australia through the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; or
2.  An owner of an Australian Registered Trade Mark; or
3.  An application for an Australian Registered Trade Mark – this is important as an application for an Australian Registered Trade Mark is sufficient, it doesn’t actually have to be registered.

One a registrant is able to demonstrate eligibility, it has satisfied the first step.

 Entitlement to Register

The entitlement to register comes down to this, a domain name must be:

1.  An exact match, abbreviation or acronym of the registrant’s name or trademark; or
2. Otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant – some examples of this may be that the domain name represents a product or service the registrant sells.

Examples

An example of a foreign entity who can register a domain name may be a USA Company, Ted’s Computers LLC. Ted’s Computers LLC applies to register the trade mark, Ted’s Super Computers and Accessories.

Even though the application for the trade mark has not been registered Ted’s Computers LLC could register tedssupercomputersandaccessories.com.au (which is an exact match of the registrant’s trade mark) or it could register TSCA (which is an abbreviation or acronym of the registrant’s or trademark) or tedscomputers.com.au (which is an exact match of the registrant’s name).

Ted’s Computers could also register names that it has a close and substantial connection to for example computers.com.au, routers.com.au, monitors.com.au, printers.com.au, keyboards.com.au, mouse.com.au, computercamera.com.au – as these are all products that Ted’s Computers sells.

 How to become eligible

If you would like to become eligible then Cooper Mills Lawyers can assist you to:

1. Obtain an ARBN and become a foreign registered company entitled to trade in Australia;
2. Register an Australian Trade Mark – this is the easiest and quickest way to become eligible.
3. Understand all aspects of policy and provide strategic advice.

*This blog post is based on the Policy position as at 9 November 2011. This is not legal advice and you should obtain legal advice specific to your particular circumstances.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman today released its annual report, which highlighted a spike in the number of complaints received, with mobile phone services leading the rise in complaints.

Of particular note there was a 26 per cent increase in disputes about internet charges on a mobile service.

According to the Report:

The TIO received a record number of new complaints in 2010-11, 197,682 or a substantial 17.8 per cent increase compared to the previous year, reversing the 4.6 per cent decrease in new complaints we reported in 2009-10.

The issue with the largest increase in mobile phone complaints was faults, with 56,475 issues raised or a 180.7 per cent increase from the previous year. The two most common complaints in this area include poor coverage (28,634 issues or a 609.6 per cent increase) and dropouts
(6,941 issues or a 482.8 per cent increase).

The TIO figures have been controversial in the past, with critics claiming that the TIO double and triple counts complaints, which results in the high headline number of complaints.

The TIO data will not doubt be seized on my the ACMA, who is looking at reform of the Telco industry following the release of its Reconnecting the Customer report.

It has been reported that the Carnegie Fund, a fund supported by the Australian Government through the Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) program has invested $3 million in Winged Media.

According to Domain Name Wire, Carnegie Fund provided the investment on the strength of websites such as Protrada operated by Winged Media.

Protrada provides aggregation of domain name auction platforms including Sedo and Godaddy.

This investment highlights the value of the Australian domain industry, which has continued to break records in investment over the past 12 months.