If you’re a copyright owner and you believe someone is illegally distributing your material, what should you do? It’s not a question that lends itself to an easy answer, but choosing to sue the alleged offender somewhere they don’t live doesn’t look too good. More »
We’ve spent a lot of time this week looking at proposals for how ISPs should deal with allegations of piracy via torrents and how those would work in practice. There’s broad agreement that the proposals aren’t perfect and that a dedicated downloader could easily work around them, but there’s also clearly some widely-held misunderstandings about the nature of the proposals and the alternative business models which might drive entertainment in the future. Let’s bust through a few of them. More »
A coalition of ISPs has proposed new rules for dealing with Australians thought to have downloaded copyrighted material. It has already generated a lot of controversy and discussion, but just how will the process work? More »
Five major Australian internet service providers (ISPs) — iiNet, Internode, Primus, Optus and Telstra — have released a proposal for dealing with online piracy. It’s an education-based scheme that doesn’t force ISPs to cut off customers accused of piracy by movie studios, but there’s a way to go before it becomes reality. More »
It’s still not clear if there’ll be a further appeal in the iiNet vs studios piracy case, but the ISP isn’t staying quiet on the issue while it waits to find out. In a new paper it argues that there should be an independent body which assesses and assigns penalties for copyright infringements, drawing on the points model we’re familiar with from driving licences. More »
It’s been more than a year since the original result of the trial bought against iiNet by various copyright bodies, which found that iiNet couldn’t be held responsible for the actions of its BitTorrent-loving users. That finding was appealed, but the appeal has failed, with the Federal Court today upholding the original decision. More »
Google won a big decision in its long-running court fight with Viacom yesterday, as a US District Court in New York ruled that, as long as web entities offer to work with copyright holders to prevent infringement when it’s found, they are protected against claims of infringement by the safe harbour of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). More »
iiNet has prevailed in the much-watched Federal Court case which accused it of aiding piracy by failing to block customers who used BitTorrent to illegally swap movies, with Justice Dennis Cowdroy ruling that iiNet was not responsible for the actions of those customers. More »
If you’re starting out on your own, or just wondering exactly how and where your independent work is covered by copyright, the Freelance Switch blog has a meaty, explanatory post on the ins and outs of copyright that’s well worth the (long) read. More »
