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International Law

Freedom to Differ

A blog that speaks freely about legal issues facing the media and the internet. It mainly covers issues relating to the legal regulation of the internet and the media, but at times Constitutional law issues and politics are discussed. While the focus is on Australia, developments in other nations around the world are considered as well.

Post Frequency: 25.4/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 09:11:39

Comparing government copyright on the web: from whitehouse.gov to pm.gov.au

Posted on January 24, 2009
One feature of US President Barack Obama's relaunched whitehouse.gov website was the inclusion in the copyright notice the provision that all third-party content on the site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License:Copyright Notice Pursuant to federal law, government-produced materials appearing on this site are not copyright protected...

Facebook thinks friends are worth more than 37 cents

Posted on January 24, 2009
I thought I should post an update to the story on the interesting marketing strategy employed by Burger King on Facebook that I blogged about two weeks ago(see here). From TechCrunch:Burger King, through their insanely creative advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (see their recent Burger King perfume launch), launches...

Comparing government copyright on the web: from whitehouse.gov to pm.gov.au

Facebook thinks friends are worth more than 37 cents

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A Thousand Words

Posted on January 23, 2009
Ted Chung's mesmerising short film, A Thousand Words, is deservedly beginning to go viral. Jeffrey Wells describes it in this way:... an elegant, concise and very affecting portrait of big-city loneliness and instant connections that flare up and are gone seconds later...

White House exempts YouTube from privacy rules

Posted on January 23, 2009
CNET's Chris Soghoian has a fascinating post on an under-reported early decision of the Obama administration:The new Web site for Obama's White House is already drawing attention from privacy activists and tech bloggers. While the initial focus has been on the site's policies relating to search engine robots, a far...

"Writing in the Age of Distraction"

Posted on January 23, 2009
Cory Doctorow has a useful piece on writing in the age of distraction:We know that our readers are distracted and sometimes even overwhelmed by the myriad distractions that lie one click away on the Internet, but of course writers face the same glorious problem: the delirious world of information and...

Colbert's Remix Challenge

Posted on January 23, 2009
When Larry Lessig appeared on The Colbert Report two weeks ago to talk about this latest book, Remix, he basically invited people to remix the interview over the protests of host Stephen Colbert's (see here). Now Colbert has responded to some of the remixes that have popped up online (for...

Filtering political speech

Posted on January 23, 2009
Stilgherrian has a piece in Crikey today titled So Conroy?s Internet filter won?t block political speech, eh?:?Freedom of speech is fundamentally important in a democratic society and there has never been any suggestion that the Australian Government would seek to block political content,? intoned Senator Stephen Conroy on Tuesday...

Filtering political speech

Posted on January 23, 2009
Stilgherrian has a piece in Crikey today titled So Conroy???s Internet filter won???t block political speech, eh?:???Freedom of speech is fundamentally important in a democratic society and there has never been any suggestion that the Australian Government would seek to block political content,??? intoned Senator Stephen Conroy on Tuesday...

Copyright blocks The Wonder Years on DVD

Posted on January 22, 2009
Techdirt reports that thanks to problems with music licensing rights, The Wonder Years is unlikely to be available on DVD anytime soon:One of the tragedies of ridiculous music licensing practices has been that TV shows that involved great music can no longer be seen -- because when they were first...

Social media and US Airways Flight 1549

Posted on January 22, 2009
When US Airways Flight 1549 crash landed on the Hudson River, the event unfolded before the world on a range of social media websites. Employees at Hill & Knowlton have put together two interesting presentations that illustrate the speed at which this event unfolded online...

"But the greatest of these is love"

Posted on January 22, 2009
Last December, Justice Kirby gave the address at the Griffith Business School and Griffith Law School graduation ceremony. Although Justice Kirby has been a prolific speaker throughout his time on the High Court, I don't think he has ever given a speech before on the topic of love:So what is...

Freakdom of Speech

Posted on January 22, 2009
Patrick Bristow's Freakdom of Speech is a satire of the diversity of dumb to be found in America. The first episode is America on Obama: Read NewTeeVee's review here.

Charon QC promotes the upcoming Australia Day Blawg Review

Posted on January 22, 2009
After reading my post earlier tonight about an Australia Day Blawg Review (see here), UK blawger Charon QC was inspired to put together this little video using Xtranormal. I don't think I've ever looked so good ...If you want to listen to a real and somewhat serious conversation between Charon...

We Live in Public trailer

Posted on January 22, 2009
Josh Harris has created a documentary We Live in Public, about the possibility of the virtual world taking over society in the future, which premiered this week at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival:

RIP Sir John Mortimer

Posted on January 22, 2009
Although Sir John Mortimer passed away a week ago, if you haven't read his obituary written by Geoffrey Robertson in The Guardian, you really should. It reminds us there was more to his extraordinary life than the creation of Rumpole of the Bailey:John was a successful silk - he had...

Coming soon ... an Australia Day Blawg Review

Posted on January 22, 2009
On Monday 26 January I will be hosting Blawg Review #196, a weekly round-up of posts from around the blawgosphere, for the fourth time. I have previously hosted Blawg Review #85, Blawg Review #136 and Blawg Review #178. Therefore I would encourage you all to let me know what interesting...

Copyright blocks The Wonder Years on DVD

iTunes for news

Posted on January 15, 2009
In a piece for the New York Times, David Carr suggested that there should be an iTunes for news:Last Tuesday, iTunes, Apple?s ubiquitous online music store that sold more than 2.4 billion tracks last year alone, changed its own tune, announcing that songs would no longer be sold with copying...

12 January 2009: a decisive day in the history of intellectual property?

Posted on January 15, 2009
Three days ago, YouTube permanently disabled the account of critic and commentator Kevin B. Lee, suggesting that YouTube is cracking down on critical video essays posted to the site:Kevin?s video essays wed critical commentary or conversation to clips from copyright films in a ?teaching? context, and most of them were...

Optus spam fine

Posted on January 15, 2009
The ACMA has fined Optus under the Spam Act 2003:Optus has been slapped with fines of $110,000, the second biggest penalty ever issued under the Spam Act. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has accused Optus of sending 20,000 electronic messages without accurate sender identification...

The Importance of Ideas

Posted on January 15, 2009
Check out a great new blog from Jason Whittaker, The Importance of Ideas, here. The name of the blog comes from this quote from the legendary journalist, Edward R. Murrow:"Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information." I'm looking forward to reading Jason's ideas...

Social Media Club Brisbane January

Posted on January 15, 2009
The inaugural event for the year for the Social Media Club Brisbane is next week, on Tuesday January 20, commencing at 5.30 pm, at the Melbourne Hotel in West End. Co-hosting this event with SMC Brisbane, and generously covering venue costs and providing refreshments, is the blogger advertising network Nuffnang,...

iTunes for news

Posted on January 15, 2009
In a piece for the New York Times, David Carr suggested that there should be an iTunes for news:Last Tuesday, iTunes, Apple???s ubiquitous online music store that sold more than 2.4 billion tracks last year alone, changed its own tune, announcing that songs would no longer be sold with copying...

12 January 2009: a decisive day in the history of intellectual property?

Posted on January 15, 2009
Three days ago, YouTube permanently disabled the account of critic and commentator Kevin B. Lee, suggesting that YouTube is cracking down on critical video essays posted to the site:Kevin???s video essays wed critical commentary or conversation to clips from copyright films in a ???teaching??? context, and most of them were...

Optus spam fine

The Importance of Ideas

A-PAC: Australia's Public Affairs Channel

Posted on January 13, 2009
Australia's answer to C-SPAN, now called A-PAC, will launch on 20 January. The website is online here, where you can watch a promotional (propaganda?) video that gives the impression that this channel was the most important outcome of Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit and that it has come "more than a...

"I hope my murder will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration"

Posted on January 13, 2009
I would encourage you to read this extraordinary article by the editor of the Sri Lankan Sunday Leader, which was published three days after he was shot dead in Colombo. Read it here.

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