Archive | December, 2008

iiNet builds its defence against AFACT copyright claim

iiNet supremo Michael Malone has given the clearest indication yet of the company’s detailed defence to AFACT’s copyright action against it.

Writing on Whirlpool, Australian broadband’s town square, Malone laid down the law:  ‘We have yet to receive any independently verified notice that show (sic) that a customer has actually infringed.’

His statement goes on to make it clear that iiNet will argue that an ISP is never obliged to discipline a user for peer-to-peer copyright infringement allegations unless they have been declared an infringer by a court; evidence that falls short of a court finding does not give an ISP any obligation to act.

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Court allows service of legal documents via Facebook

An ACT court has allowed court documents to be served on two defendants through a notification posted on their Facebook pages.

Although court documents must normally be delivered in defined ‘traditional’ ways like personally or by post, it sometimes happens that people are uncontactable – deliberately or otherwise – by the approved means.

In those cases, courts can order that documents or notifications be sent to them via other channels that are reasonably likely to come to their attention.  It’s called ‘substituted service’ and this is the first time we’ve heard of it being allowed through Facebook.

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Advertising substantiation notices: Coming to a national regulator near you

When the ACCC suspects a CSP is breaching the Trade Practices Act with unacceptable advertising, one of its main weapons is to issue a ‘section 155 notice‘.

It’s a bit like a subpoena and even a search warrant and requires the CSP to provide detailed documents, records and other information that may show it is in breach.

Now the Federal Government has agreed to give the regulator an even more effective power that will change the way CSPs need to approach advertising.

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It’s official: dcc:ing can be a privacy breach

Who doesn’t have a story about a time they received an email with dozens of people identified in the to: or cc: field, when they obviously should have been in the bcc: field ?

Well, Australia’s Privacy Commissioner has given the clearest indication yet that dcc:ing can breach the Privacy Act.

‘dcc:ing’ ?  It’s ‘dumb copying’, as opposed to ‘blind copying’.

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TPG breaches section 53(g) of TPA

It’s amazing that CSPs with the turnover of TPG still produce seriously illegal advertising and contracts.

Following November’s outrageous website advertisement, TPG has been found with a clear breach of section 53(g) of the Trade Practices Act in its standard terms.

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TPG repairs one TPA breach, but now there’s another

We reported in November that national ISP / telco TPG was running a plainly illegal advertisement on its home page.

The company has now changed the advert to come closer to legal compliance.  We still think the ads are obliged to mention that a ‘Fair Go‘ policy applies.

But maybe it’s just as well the policy isn’t linked to the ad.  It sits next to a trade practices law howler that is better kept out of public view.

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