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Posts Tagged ‘Telecommunications Lawyers’ACMA determination on premium SMS restrictionsWednesday, May 5th, 2010 Consumers will have the choice of barring all premium SMS from their mobile phones as of 1 July 2010, with the latest package of measures announced by the ACMA. The ACMA has said that the package has been created so that “…mobile users can feel confident they will only receive and pay for services they actually want”. In a meeting with senior representatives of mobile phone companies the ACMA will discuss the possibility of the introduction of a service where consumers can request quick and easy barring via SMS. Complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman regarding premium SMS services have decreased by an astonishing rate of 50% following measures introduced by ACMA last year. As the ACMA is hoping that this trend will continue, it will be closely monitoring the industry over the next 12 months to ensure that consumer concerns are adequately being dealt with. Recent enforceable undertakings that the ACMA has accepted from Funmobile Australia Pty Limited, which included a payment of $55 000, emphasize the ACMA’s commitment to pursuing telcos which repeatedly operate in breach of the law. Industry has welcomed the new package as a further reinforcement of the existing suite of consumer protection measures included in the Communications Alliance Mobile Premium Services Industry Code C637:2009. Despite both consumers and industry receiving the package with a warm welcome, the telcos will be hit hard. In a quote published by Computer World, Warren Chaisatien, research director and principle analyst at Telstyle, says that although the rule will aid consumers who have unintentionally signed up to a premium services, it is likely to have a negative impact on telco revenues as the premium SMS market was worth approximately $250 million in 2009. Tags: ACMA, isp law, ISP Lawyers, Premium SMS, telco lawyer, telecommunications law, Telecommunications Lawyers, telo lawyers ACMA 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 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 GSM Encryption CrackedSaturday, January 2nd, 2010 According to news reports, German researchers claimed to have cracked the A5/1 encryption technology used to encrypt GSM mobile phone calls, which represents approximately 80% of the worlds mobile phone users. These claims have raised concerns with some mobile operators, who claim that if this finding were to be used by criminals, GSM telephone call could be intercepted and monitored relatively easily and cost effectively. This type of conduct is prohibited under Australian law. IT and Telecommunications Lawyer, Erhan Karabardak, Principal of Cooper Mills Lawyers, said:
Tags: Telco Law, Telco Lawyers, Telecom Law, Telecom Lawyers, telecommunications law, Telecommunications Lawyers 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 PM’s website attacked in protestThursday, September 10th, 2009 The website of the Prime Minister and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) were the subject of an attack yesterday, in support of protest against the Government’s internet filtering program. This type of attack is called a Denial of Service attack, where hackers flood a website with traffic causing the website to go down. This is a regular occurrence across the internet, but this time the motivation was political and specifically targeted at both the Prime Minister who government introduced the policy, and the ACMA who are administering the internet filtering trials. It is reported that the attack occurred shortly after 7pm AEST, which took the affected websites off line for a short period of time, both sites now appear to be operating normally. The attack allegedly carried out by the hacker known as ‘Anonymous’, was labelled as juvenile by Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today. The attack demonstrates how deeply unpopular the government’s planned internet filtering is within the community. This time most have been surprised at what lengths protesters are prepared to go to, to make their point. Is this just the start ? Tags: censorship, internet filtering, IT Lawyer, Telecommunications Lawyers |
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