Australian Technology and IP Business

Transfer of IP rights can be complex: Pacific Brands fails

I commented on the trial judge's decision in Pacific Brands Sport & Leisure Pty Ltd v Underworks Pty Ltd [2005] FCA 288 (22 March 2005) to refuse Pacific Brand's action to terminate the licence to Underworks because it had not acquired that right here.

The Full Court of the Federal Court has now handed down its decision.

Whilst it did not agree with everything decided by the trial judge it refused Pacific's appeal.

In November 2000, Sara Lee granted Underworks an exclusive right in Australia to use the King Gee marks in relation to men’s underwear and socks and the Stubbies mark on children’s socks and underwear for a period of five years in the first instance. In February 2001 Sara Lee sold its Australian apparel business to Pacific Dunlop Ltd ("Pacific Dunlop"). Pacific Dunlop then sold the rights to Pacific Brands which sought to terminate Underworks' licence.

Assignment of certain rights will only be precluded where, for example, there is a contractual or statutory prohibition, a public policy reason, or the identity of the parties is material to the contract. In this case the agreement was specifically with Sara Lee and could not be transferred to Pacific Brands.

Podcasting Legal Guide

Creative Commons have published a Podcasting Legal Guide. Whilst it's based on US law only, it identifies many issues which need to be addressed if a podcast is broadcast in other jurisdictions.

For example, it discusses the copyright status of unpublished works in the US:

"Every unpublished work from around the world of authors who died before 1936 is in the public domain in the United States. That means that the unpublished diary of an Australian who died in 1930 will be in the public domain in the U.S.; however, that same diary may still be subject to copyright under Australian copyright law in Australia. So, if you are marketing or targeting your podcast for a particular territory, you need to be aware of the copyright laws in that country as well as in the U.S. Moreover, because of the borderless nature of the Internet, you can't really stop your podcast from distributing to Australia, in which case you may be violating laws in another country."

Channel Nine sues Ice TV

The Nine Network has sued Ice TV for breach of copyright in relation to its television program information.

Ice TV is the operator of "Australia’s only subscription based electronic free-to-air program guide called ICEguide".

Ice TV says that its method of compiling data is independent and not in breach of copyright.

At a directions hearing in the Federal Court in Sydney on 23 May the claim was set down for a 4 day hearing commencing 16 October 2006.

The Age has profiled the growth of personal video recorders and EPG's in Australia.

UPDATE 11 August 2007:Nine loses action

US internet banking and ecommerce data

Pew Internet has released its Online Banking 2006 report for USA(pdf). (via BeSpacific)

In contrast to the Commonwealth Bank's recent Australian data , Pew's data is not as upbeat:

Our December 2005 poll confirmed that online banking is holding steady as a mainstream internet activity, growing along with internet use generally, though not accelerating as have some other forms of online activities. Fully 43% of internet users, or about 63 million American adults, bank online. Home broadband users continue to lead the way, with 55% of these internet users banking online, compared with 35% of home dial-up users. Online banking is equally common among all age groups under the age of 65. Forty-two percent of internet users age 18-29, 47% of internet users age 30-49, and 42% of internet users age 50-64 bank online. However only 27% of internet users age 65 and older use their internet hookups for online banking. Also, we now find that men and women are equally likely to bank online.

Is security an issue in USA? Yes.

Trust is a big factor in choosing to bank online and then sticking with it despite news headlines about identity theft and phishing. Some industry analysts predict that online banking sites will have trouble attracting new customers because of the “trust gap” between internet users who are experienced with online financial transactions and those who are not.

The significance of Bill Gates

I've read a few posts today about Bill Gates' announcement that he is leaving Microsoft in 2 years: should he have waited to make the announcement, was it more significant that his announcement is in the same week's as Robert Scoble's, has Microsoft gone past its "best before date"?

But the most interesting is Jeff Jarvis's article "The meaning of Bill" which argues that Bill Gates will be remembered as a businessman rather than an inventor/geek.

ANAO Report on internet security in government agencies

The ANAO has published its audit report of internet security at six government agencies. For the six agencies audited, the ANAO concluded that the current level of Internet security was insufficient, given the risks and problems identified through the audit findings.

The ANAO noted that a number of agencies could improve performance in some key areas, particularly email filtering, and all agencies audited could improve performance in one or more aspects of managing Internet security, such as the development of system security plans.

The ANAO made 5 key recommendations for the six agencies audited for the report, including Customs, the Australian Federal Police, the Nuclear Safety Authority, Medicare, Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources and the Department of Workplace Relations.

Extension of content regulation

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, has announced that new safeguards will be put in place to protect consumers from inappropriate or harmful material on emerging content services such as 3G mobile phones and subscription-based Internet portals.

A recent Review of the Regulation of Content Delivered Over Convergent Devices found there is a need for specific safeguards for users of these services.

New laws will extend the current safeguards that apply to content delivered over the Internet or television to be applied to content delivered over convergent devices. This will include prohibition of content rated X18+ and above, requirements for consumer advice and age-restricting access to content suited only to adults.

Can you prohibit linking?

The essence of the internet is the ability to hyperlink to other sites.

Hyperlinking is not unlawful.

So when a Canadian copyright protection site (Captain Copyright) sought to limit linking to it, especially from sites critical of it,  there was quite a bit of discussion about the nature of linking.

If you do not want someone to access your site, password protect it or insist they accept restrictive terms before entering it. However, anyone can link to any site provided it is not for unlawful means.

Commonwealth Bank releases Australian internet banking survey

When I was researching Australian financial services website compliance I found little data about internet banking usage.

So the release of details from the Commonwealth Bank’s inaugural E-Money survey - an annual index of electronic banking usage in Australia, is a welcome addition.

The results include:

• of 6.8 million Australians that have used online banking, 85 per cent prefer the internet to manage their day-to-day banking needs;
• Convenience is the main benefit of online banking for half of all online users (50%); followed by time savings (29%), ease of use over traditional banking methods (10%);
• customers aged 25-34 year olds and full-time workers were the most likely to use internet banking, while those over 50 years of age preferred using branches;
• The most popular online transaction is funds transfer/bill payment;
• among those yet to try internet banking, only 32 per cent are concerned about internet security.

The technology behind Australia's access card

MIS Magazine's story on Australia's health and services access card highlights the huge planning and implementation obstacles to this project: there are already arguments over its specifications and the technology to be used.

How do police access seized computers?

I've always wondered how police get access to computers they seize in a raid. I assume that the bad guys know about passwords.

Well the Queensland Police must have had that problem as the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000 has just been amended  to allow a search warrant to "order the person in possession of access information for a storage device in the person’s possession or to which the person has access at the place to give a police officer access to the storage device and the access information necessary for the police officer to be able to use the storage device to gain access to stored information that is accessible only by using the access information". (Section 71A).

Access information means information of any kind that it is necessary for a person to use to be able to access and read information stored electronically on a storage device.
Storage device means a device of any kind on which information may be stored electronically.
Stored information means information stored on a storage device.

Will that make it easier to force bad guys to hand over their passwords?

Marketing in Virtual Worlds

According to Paul Hemp in Avatar-Based Marketing on-line worlds are the next frontier for marketers, both in the virtual worlds themselves and the avatars (identities) that users adopt in those worlds.

Some quotes:

many of Second Life’s 100,000 or so residents are highly involved with this place. And that makes it potentially a dream marketing venue. Instead of targeting passive eyeballs, marketers here have the opportunity to interact with engaged minds. Commerce is already an integral part of Second Life. Residents spend—in Linden dollars, the local currency, available at in-world ATMs—the equivalent of $5 million a month on resident-to-resident transactions for in-world products and services. Certainly, introducing real-world brands, in some form or another, is a logical next step...

By some estimates, more than 10 million people spend $10 to $15 a month to subscribe to online role-playing environments, with the number of subscribers doubling every year. Millions more enter free sites, some of them sponsored by companies as brand-building initiatives. Many users spend upward of 40 hours a week in these worlds. And as the technology improves over the next decade, virtual worlds may well eclipse film, TV, and non–role-playing computer games as a form of entertainment. That’s because, instead of watching someone else’s story unfold in front of them on a screen, users in these worlds create and live out their own stories.

Listen to the podscast interview with the author