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As noted in the previous post, last Friday I was in BrizVegas for the ACIPA Copyright Conference.

Naturally, I learned much. But here are two things I really didn’t know, that I should note. (more…)

So on Friday, I’m at the ACIPA Annual Copyright Extravaganza in BrizVegas, and Matt Rimmer is talking about Google and all the court cases against it. And one of the cases is that brought by Perfect 10, suing over the existence of its (nudie wimmin) images in Google’s thumbnail images as displayed in Google’s Image Search function. And I have a bit of a laugh to myself, muttering phrases to myself like ‘total try-on’, and ‘haven’t you read Kelly v Arriba-Soft?‘ Then this morning, I get an email from a reader, with the title ‘Girlie Photos Land Google in Legal Trouble’, with a link to this SMH story. So I’m figuring, try on. Indeed, I shoot back a response – without reading said story – saying ‘looks like a try-on to me’. Finally, this arvo I read the story. And, it transpires, there is an injunction. My reaction: what? Or, as Marty Schwimmer – says, ‘wow’.

Now I’ve read the case. In essence, a preliminary injunction will be ordered against Google (terms yet to be determined) against its copying, and displaying , of thumbnail images of Perfect 10’s nudie wimmin pictures.

The judgment has some amusing footnotes: footnote 4 in particular, where the court notes that Perfect 10 complained ‘thumbnail’ is a misnomer when the image may be 8 x the size of an actual human thumbnail. Oh, puh-lease. Amusement aside, however, the case is interesting – even for us Australians. I reckon most of the discussion in the blogosphere is likely to go to the ‘fair use’ issue: ie, is Google’s creation, and display, of thumbnail pictures ‘fair use’. The court said no – something I thought was pretty interesting. But actually, from an Australian perspective, perhaps even more interesting are some of the parallels with Cooper, on liability for linking to stuff. (more…)

A colleague just pointed out this new journal, Copyright, to me. It looks interesting – interdiscplinary, open access, and a commitment to publishing experiments. Blurb over the fold. (more…)

The blogosphere is alive over the last few days with reports that the RIAA are saying that format shifting copying, like copying music from a legitimately-purchased CD onto your iPod, is not fair use. This appears to be inconsistent with their previously stated position – and of course, what is interesting for us here in Australia is, what implications does this have for the Fair Use Inquiry? (more…)

The BBC has a thoughtful piece on the pending expiry of copyright in sound recordings of a number of major pieces of music.

[T]he message from the industry is one of impending gloom. They are warning that they face one of the biggest challenges to their survival since popular music exploded in the 1960s. In 2013, copyright in the sound recording of the Beatles’ first album expires, as it will for recordings from Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and other performers of the same period.

(more…)

ZDNet had a recent article about RIM winning a patent case in the UK. The action was unrelated to the NTP/RIM litigation, and appears to have been an action by RIM to have an InPro patent revoked, provoking InPro to countersue for infringement. (more…)

Rothnie very usefully notes that the Cth has released its draft legislative agenda for the Autumn sittings. On the IP front, it includes a few pieces that I had predicted back when I was crystal ball-gazing in January, plus some other stuff of general interest.

It’s worth noting that none of the IP legislation is marked for introduction and passage in the Autumn sittings (ie, none are ‘starred bills’ on this list). Though, these things can always change… Comments on the particular Bills foreshadowed over the fold. (more…)

US copyright expert William Patry (Former copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary; Policy Planning Advisor to the Register of Copyrights) has commented on the US Copyright Office’s orphan works proposal, which I commented on briefly last week. Prof. Patry has also written, with Justice Posner, on orphan works (get the article here). Worth noting this paragraph from Patry’s commentary:

The question in Conor Medsystems Inc v The University of British Columbia (No.2) [2006] FCA 32 (Finkelstein J) was this:

1. if you have two joint patentees
2. one of those joint patentees is a University which claims title through two people claiming to be inventors,
3. but it turns out that those people were not in fact inventors,
4. is the patent liable to revocation, on the grounds that it was not granted to the actual inventors or those claiming under them – even though the other patentee is not affected by the problem?

(more…)

There’s a story in the Australian Financial Review today (sorry, not available online) which notes some comments by the Attorney-General appearing to favour harmony on copyright exceptions, and noting that it seems ‘intrinsically unfair’ if material that would be able to be used under fair use in the US is not so freely useable here in Australia.

Has anyone noticed the recent anti-smoking advertisements showing on television – you know, the ones that talk about how no matter what colour the pack, and no matter whether called ‘mild’, or ‘light’, or ‘low tar’, cigarettes are still toxic? Probably you have – they’ve been around quite a lot lately.

So here’s the question: how many people, do you think, realise that this is corrective advertising, required as a result of some undertakings given to the ACCC by some of the leading cigarette manufacturers in Australia? And why isn’t that part of the advertisement? (more…)

I commented the other day about the Blackberry patent dispute between RIM, makers of the Blackberry device, and NTP. My comments were basically on the court processes, but there are ongoing issues happening in the Patent Office. The new development? I’ll just quote TechDirt:

…the OECD has just held a major conference on the Future of the Digital Economy. Michael Geist, who attended, has a summary of the ‘big themes: the battle over DRM, and network neutrality.

(via Joe Gratz) The US Copyright Office has recently conducted an inquiry into the impact of copyright on use of, and access to orphan works – in essence, works where the owner of copyright cannot be identified. The very long time copyright lasts tends to lead to lots of these orphan works – where copyright owners die, or go out of business. It has often been noted that copyright term extension gave protection that might be useful for a very small proportion of works, but also closed off the possibilities for using, or making available the massive body of these little orphans.

The US Copyright Office has now completed its inquiry, and has recommended a statutory defence, which would limit the availability of injunctions, and limit monetary awards to ‘reasonable compensation’, provided that a person first carried out a good faith, reasonably diligent search to locate the owner before going ahead with use of an apparently orphan work. (more…)

Yesterday I asked whether anyone knew what was going on in the Kazaa case (you know, the one where the Music Industry is suing Sharman (Kazaa) for providing P2P software and authorising infringement of copyright. In particular, I was asking whether the contempt hearing previously scheduled for Monday 30 Jan went ahead.

My query has been answered! David tells me that the question of contempt has been reserved for the Full Court hearing in the case: an order has been made (available in the ESearch facility of the Federal Court’s database, CaseTrack), to this effect:

So this adds to the long list of things that Branson, Lindgren, and Finkelstein JJ will be pondering in the week commencing 20 February 2006 (soon!).

Ta David!