tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36032412024-03-14T01:09:14.446+11:00Here you will find the 2002-2006 ramblings of Kimberlee Weatherall, Australian IP Academic, on IP law in Australia. <i>Weatherall's Law</i> went into permanent hiatus on 10 January 2007. Kimberlee now posts at <a href="http://www.lawfont.com">LawFont</a>. You can also follow her academic publications through her <a href="http://works.bepress.com/kimweatherall/">Bepress site</a>.Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.comBlogger981125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1168490907210097292007-01-11T15:42:00.000+11:002007-01-11T15:48:27.236+11:00

I know, it kind of ruins the symmetry to post again, after 'The Last Post'.However, just after posting that last post, I got an email from Bill Patry, to let me know of the publication of his new treatise. It can't pass without comment. Bill, whose blog is filled with interesting points of statutory history on copyright, is one of the relatively small number of US academics who genuinely pays

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1168404074250904412007-01-10T10:33:00.000+11:002007-01-10T16:57:45.876+11:00

I have been tagged by the 'Five Things You Don't Know About Me' Meme that is doing the rounds (thanks Abi). (Like Starkoff, I'm not tagging anyone else). So here goes:I have two brothers. They are both doctors. I have two sisters-in-law. They, too, are doctors. I studied law to be different from my older brother. Little did I know...The only computer programming I have ever done was in

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166509434908388322006-12-19T16:00:00.000+11:002006-12-20T08:24:57.330+11:00

Various reactions to the 'linking is authorisation' Cooper decision handed down yesterday by the Full Federal Court:I commented yesterday (summary? 'troubling'. 'Have we, or have we not just had a very extended debate about copyright law in Australia? Was not one of the memes in that debate the idea that copyright ought to 'work' in a digital environment? Are not search engines, and links,

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166443026649055412006-12-18T18:43:00.000+11:002006-12-18T22:57:07.323+11:00

As I anticipated on Friday, and noted earlier today: the Full Federal Court judgment in the Cooper case has been handed down. This is a significant, appeal judgment on the scope of secondary liability in copyright law: that is, when can one person be responsible for the infringing activities of another?In this case, the Full Federal Court had to consider whether a website, structured and

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166427276426169292006-12-18T18:10:00.000+11:002006-12-20T11:54:08.126+11:00

Peter Black, of Freedom to Differ fame, is talking about organising an Australian BloggerCon in March 2007. Tell him what you think about the idea, the content, etc etc etc here. Now all we have to do is educate him on how to use the apostrophe... (he he he, see that's fixed now!)

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166419138064842082006-12-18T16:16:00.000+11:002006-12-18T16:18:58.090+11:00

Judgments (2 of them) are here.Helpdesk employee wins; Cooper and the ISP lose.Enjoy!More when I've read it.Hat tip: Starkoff again, naturally.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166164644133880132006-12-15T17:36:00.000+11:002006-12-15T17:37:24.160+11:00

... when your email spam filter labels your boss's email as 'spam' (sorry, Vice-Chancellor...).

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166163438581625822006-12-15T17:07:00.000+11:002006-12-15T17:17:18.610+11:00

Judgment by the Full Federal Court is due in the Cooper litigation (first instance judgment here; commentary here, here, here, here) on Monday. Cooper deals with issues of authorisation of copyright infringement by an ISP, and by a website that linked to infringing MP3 files. It's a biggie, in Australian copyright law terms. When, exactly, does one 'authorise' copyright infringement online?

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166140193861961532006-12-15T10:48:00.000+11:002006-12-15T10:49:53.886+11:00

Why does everyone seem to assume I am a bloke? Is it something I said?

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166137015589115872006-12-15T09:30:00.000+11:002006-12-15T09:56:55.790+11:00

A few quick links for a Friday:According to news from NZ, 'concern is growing' over the New Zealand Copyright (New Technologies and Performers' Rights) Amendment Bill. Reading this story has caused me to update/change/refine some of my comments in the post from yesterday on the TPM provisions.It is also being reported that 'China is tightening control over its online music and game industries,

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1166075025823482892006-12-14T14:20:00.000+11:002006-12-15T17:21:51.616+11:00

[Note: the TPM part of this post has been updated, 15 December 2006]So, let's see:Australia has passed a copyright amendment bill, with lots of changes, particularly digital ones;The UK has the Gowers Review Report, newly released - with various proposed changes for consideration;Canada is still waiting, and ... (wait for it, wait for it)Now New Zealand has its own Bill! (big pdf here, text

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165963156986689462006-12-13T09:26:00.000+11:002006-12-13T09:39:17.046+11:00

For your morning giggle. An appropriate cartoon for all those who have suffered through Australian Copyright Reform, Circa 2006:

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165909965380235802006-12-12T18:48:00.000+11:002006-12-12T18:52:45.406+11:00

That at the moment, if you type "Australian Copyright Law" into Google, within the first page of results you get:"Boing Boing: Australia's copyright law breaks search engines"Google warns Aust copyright laws could cripple Internet. 07/11On the second page, you get:Boing Boing: Australia's copyright law sucks a little lessBackdown on draconian laws - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au andPM -

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165905734880064482006-12-12T17:12:00.000+11:002006-12-13T09:21:53.326+11:00

T'was the week before Christmas, and all through the landNot a creature was copying: such actions were banned.The iPods were placed in their cradles with careIn hopes that there soon would be music to shareThen up at the Big House in Canberra - what news!I sprang to my keyboard, more law to peruse,And what to my wondering eyes should appear,A release from Phil Ruddock! Ah yes! Listen here!A wink

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165794257701853452006-12-11T10:35:00.000+11:002006-12-11T10:44:17.730+11:00

The Attorney-General has issued this press release about the Gowers Report (I've already blogged on this), rather extravagantly claiming that 'The Gowers Review in the United Kingdom has taken the same approach to copyright reform as the Australian Government in balancing the rights of consumers and creators'.Extravagant claim? Well, yes. The government has in its comments on copyright law

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165475142830253642006-12-07T17:45:00.000+11:002006-12-08T17:32:22.083+11:00

Warwick Rothnie (first posts: October 2004) and I (first post: way back in June 2002 believe it or not) are starting to look like elder statespeople in the Australian IP blogosphere. While I've been not nearly organised enough in pointing it out, there's a new generation getting into IP blogging now. So if you've not visited them yet, I suggest you have a bit of a look at:Peter Black's Freedom

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165454663638398372006-12-07T12:23:00.000+11:002006-12-07T13:53:13.560+11:00

can be found on Bill Patry's blog, here.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165454269199151542006-12-07T12:16:00.000+11:002006-12-07T12:17:49.200+11:00

Speaking of orphan works, this white paper has been released by the Documentary Organisation of Canada on copyright clearance woes and associated.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165448657057847122006-12-07T10:35:00.000+11:002006-12-07T10:46:58.603+11:00

Attorney-General's new enews on copyright has been published. It is available here. Helpfully, it notes that the Copyright Amendment Act 2006 will shortly be available on the ComLaw website and a consolidated version of the Copyright Act 1968 is likely to be available on ComLaw by the end of January 2007. Not much new there for followers of the process, except the comments on when the law is

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165448111939223282006-12-07T09:31:00.000+11:002006-12-08T17:35:56.750+11:00

Well, the final report of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property has been released. The 140+ page report can be downloaded from here.This is a big deal for the UK - albeit it has been easy to ignore the goings on, while we struggle locally with what is now, officially, the Australian Copyright Amendment Act 2006 (Cth). Below, a brief background, some links to the UK commentary, and some

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165301514417888792006-12-05T17:51:00.000+11:002006-12-06T15:30:35.230+11:00

It seems that the Copyright Amendment Bill passed the House of Reps at around 4:15pm today.Welcome to the new Australian copyright world. Presumably royal assent will occur sometime mid December, and it will all be fully in place soon.Update: and here's the government's press release, and a 'FAQ' issued by the government on the Bill. According to the press release, we are 'leading the way' in

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165298969657491082006-12-05T16:24:00.000+11:002006-12-05T17:09:29.686+11:00

But wait, said the guy with the BeDazzler - there's more! I happened to be prowling around the Bills Net site today, looking for something, and lo and behold, I found the amendments the government proposed to the Copyright Amendment Bill. And you know what? In addition to the 12 pages of amendments I've previously discussed (initially here, then in amended FAQs here), I find there's another 3

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1165282393139924582006-12-05T12:15:00.000+11:002006-12-05T12:33:13.173+11:00

You will find, after a period of seriously heavy blogging recently owing to the Australian Copyright Amendment Bill, this blog will be a lot less active in the next while. I'm in Melbourne, but preparing for a permanent move to the University of Queensland, site of the excellent ACIPA research centre on IP in January, and in any event, the urgency has gone out of the whole blogging thing now that

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1164955711234742922006-12-01T17:41:00.000+11:002006-12-01T17:48:31.260+11:00

While I've been on a plane back to Melbourne, everyone has already heard the news, yes, the Senate passed the Australian copyright reforms. So:here's the official press releaseread the Senate hansard here (30 November is the right date)Presumably, it now goes back to the House of Representatives for the final seal of approval with amendments.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3603241.post-1164843739730811832006-11-30T10:19:00.000+11:002006-11-30T10:56:02.576+11:00

A few quick links this morning on the Australian Copyright Amendment Bill:You can read the debate in the Senate on the Bill yesterday (several Senators from the Committee: Ludwig, Bartlett, Lundy, McCrossin, as well as Ellison from the government side) here (beware: big pdf). (The debate is at page 23 and following, then page 67 and following). Summary: opponents complain very bitterly about

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11323459337615228810noreply@blogger.com0