Public consultation on Marrakesh Treaty winding up … Latest developments in Sweden’s biggest file sharing prosecution … Kim Dotcom’s NZ legal team exit stage right … Rocco Rinaldo reports ... more
Year: 2014
Richard Woelfl v Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The defamation trial brought by a Grafton gaol prison officer against the ABC ends abruptly after vigorous cross-examination by counsel for the broadcaster, Stuart Littlemore QC … Sighs of relief all round ... more
John Setka v Tony Abbott MP and Australian News Channel Pty Ltd
Unionist John Setka’s defamation action against Tony Abbott suffers another blow … Victorian Court of Appeal affirms the validity of the Hore-Lacy defence in that jurisdiction … Daniel Stuk reports ... more
Mohammed Rezaiee v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (No 2)
A win for the media, and a loss … NSW Supreme Court Justice Lucy McCallum upholds the public interest in respect of footage secretly filmed by the ABC … And pulls the “contextual truth rug” from underneath Channel Nine’s feet … Kate Lilly reports ... more
Litigating media privacy cases
The Australian Law Reform Commission recently proposed a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy … But what privacy protection is currently available to privacy litigants and how should lawyers approach media privacy cases? Nina Ubaldi went along to a recent CMCL seminar to find out ... more
Jury out on Hockey and Adams
No juries for federal treasurer Joe Hockey or NSW Supreme Court Justice Michael Adams … Nationwide News last media company left in Gordon Wood proceedings … The thoughts of Justice Lucy McCallum … In the shadow of the trade unions Royal Commission …. Doctor sues Nine over secret filming … Fresh action, new settlements ... more
Brian Fisher v Channel Seven Sydney Pty Ltd & Ors (No 4)
Channel Seven ordered to pay a former school bus driver $125,000 damages, despite the plaintiff being found to be “mendacious” by Justice Stephen Rothman … more
The “right to be forgotten” in practice
Since the controversial “right to be forgotten” decision in Spain in relation to Google search engine results, there have been over half a million URL removal requests … UK lawyers Sara Mansoori and Eloise Le Santo investigate in this Inforrm article ... more
IP news, here and there
Producers of Dallas Buyers Club take iiNet to court … Electronic Frontier Foundation seeks to protect your right to play old games … UK government commits to funding specialist online copyright infringement policing unit … Rocco Rinaldo reports ... more
Data retention: The potential impact of metadata
The federal government’s plan for telecommunications companies to retain metadata has worrying implications for all stakeholders … Sydney lawyer Patrick Fair examines the potential impact on journalists’ sources, personal privacy and civil litigation ... more
Book Review: The Journalist’s Guide to Media Law
It’s a legal minefield out there for journalists, bloggers and posters of material online … Happily, there is guidance for all in the latest edition of Mark Pearson and Mark Polden’s The Journalist’s Guide to Media Law ... ABC lawyer Lynette Houssarini reviews a very handy handbook ... more
Born Brands Pty Ltd & Ors v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd & Ors
The makers of a baby sleep positioner Channel Nine News reported as being linked to sudden infant death syndrome lose their appeal, despite the NSW Court of Appeal disagreeing with several of the trial judge’s findings … Rico Jedrzejczyk reports ... more