Online surveillance: what is the Australian government hiding?
EFA has suspected since the existence of the NSA’s global internet surveillance program PRISM was revealed recently by whistleblower Ed Snowden, that Australian intelligence agencies have been receiving information from this program about Australians. Australian intelligence agencies have a long-established close working relationship with their counterparts in the US and other Anglosphere countries under an […]
Is fair use coming to Australia?
This week, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) released a Discussion Paper as part of its review of Australia’s Copyright laws in the context of the Digital Economy. As had been previously indicated, this Discussion Paper recommends the introduction of the principle of fair use into Australia’s copyright regime. As ALRC Commissioner Jill McKeough said […]
PRISM: the NSA is watching…the whole world.
This week’s revelations in The Guardian and Washington Post about PRISM, the United States’ National Security Agency’s top secret global internet surveillance program are extremely alarming. The leaked information suggests that the NSA has ‘direct access’ to the systems of the majority of the most popular online services on the planet, including Google (including Youtube), […]
Copyright Bullies: Sydney law firm targeting downloaders
At the end of last month, it came to light that Sydney-based Marque Lawyers has issued letters to Australian ISPs to ask them to hand over details about the identity of their users who have allegedly used peer to peer Internet file sharing platforms such as BitTorrent in a way that infringes copyrighted content owned […]
Victoria considers updating laws for sexting
The Victorian Parliament’s Law Reform Committee has completed an inquiry into the issue of ‘sexting’ and has issued a series of recommendations which together represent a refreshingly sensible approach to a complex and legally problematic issue. The Terms of Reference define sexting as, “creating, sharing, sending or posting of sexually explicit messages or images via […]