Pub­li­ca­tions

Sep 12, 2012

Copy­right and the Dig­i­tal Econ­o­my Issues Paper Released

The high­ly antic­i­pat­ed ALRC issues paper on the Copy­right and the Dig­i­tal Econ­o­my was released on 20 August 2012. The issues paper requests for com­men­tary on over 50 ques­tions relat­ing to the appro­pri­ate­ness of the cur­rent copy­right excep­tions. These also cov­er con­verged media and new tech­nolo­gies in rela­tion to copy­right which…

Sep 7, 2012

High Court — Bar­clay Deci­sion — Stop Press 

The High Court of Aus­tralia unan­i­mous­ly deter­mined that the first instance deci­sion of Jus­tice Tracey in the Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia was the cor­rect one, there­by over­turn­ing the deci­sion of the Full Bench of the Fed­er­al Court. Mr Bar­clay was an Aus­tralia Edu­ca­tion­al Union (AEU) rep­re­sen­ta­tive in his work­place, Bendi­go Region­al…

Aug 13, 2012

ACMA agrees to reg­is­ter the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Code

On 11 July 2012, the Aus­tralian Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Media Author­i­ty (ACMA) agreed to reg­is­ter the new Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Code (TCP). Reg­is­tra­tion takes effect on 1 Sep­tem­ber 2012 with phased imple­men­ta­tion over 12 months. The TCP is intend­ed to: align the oblig­a­tions of telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions providers under the Aus­tralian Con­sumer Law (ACL) and the TCP…

Aug 13, 2012

Fol­low­ing can­di­dates or employ­ees on social net­work­ing sites: A minefield

In Brief Social net­work­ing is not a fad, but a fun­da­men­tal shift in the way we com­mu­ni­cate. Thus it is no sur­prise that employ­ers are increas­ing­ly using social net­work­ing sites to vet poten­tial employ­ees and to mon­i­tor the behav­iour of cur­rent employ­ees. How­ev­er, this devel­op­ment rais­es sig­nif­i­cant pri­va­cy con­cerns and can expose…

Aug 13, 2012

Beware — Adverse Action may result in reinstatement

In Brief The last thing any employ­er wants is to be forced into rein­stat­ing an employ­ee after a messy gen­er­al pro­tec­tions dis­pute. Until recent­ly, most gen­er­al pro­tec­tions claims have result­ed in either the dis­missal of an employ­ee or an award of dam­ages and com­pen­sa­tion. How­ev­er the recent case of CFMEU v Pil­bara Iron…

Aug 13, 2012

Update on Parental leave

On 1 Octo­ber 2012 the bal­ance of var­i­ous pro­vi­sions of the Paid Parental Leave and Oth­er Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment (Dad and Part­ner Pay and Oth­er Mea­sure) Act 2012 will com­mence. This piece of leg­is­la­tion in par­tic­u­lar, amends two pieces of leg­is­la­tion: the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010 and the Fair Work Act…

Aug 10, 2012

Out­go­ings — review of let­table area 

In brief Broad­ly speak­ing, the def­i­n­i­tion of the let­table area in a lease must be appro­pri­ate­ly draft­ed and scru­ti­nised to ensure that it encap­su­lates the inten­tion of the land­lord and the tenant. This is para­mount in regard to a land­lord’s abil­i­ty to appor­tion costs to and recov­er costs from ten­ants and weighs heav­i­ly on…

Jul 30, 2012

EU court clar­i­fies trade mark infringe­ment in use of Google AdWords

A recent Euro­pean court deci­sion has caused Euro­pean com­pa­nies to think care­ful­ly about the type of key­words they use in their Google AdWords campaign. Por­tak­abin Ltd v Pri­mak­abin BV In Por­tak­abin Ltd v Pri­mak­abin BV, the court found that the use of a reg­is­tered trade mark as a key­word search term infringed the trade mark owner’s…

Jul 30, 2012

Paid parental leave leg­is­la­tion, unpaid leave and flex­i­ble work arrange­ments under the Fair Work Act

In brief — paid parental leave A paid parental leave scheme was intro­duced into par­lia­ment on 12 May 2010. It passed the Sen­ate on 17 June 2010. The scheme com­mences on 1 Jan­u­ary 2011. Con­tin­u­ing enti­tle­ment to unpaid leave and flex­i­ble work arrangements The Fair Work Act enshrines the right of employ­ees who give…

Jul 30, 2012

Defama­tion — Q & A

What is defama­tion all about? Defama­tion law is all about pro­tect­ing rep­u­ta­tion. Where a per­son has pub­lished some­thing whether oral­ly or in per­ma­nent form about some­body else to a third per­son or per­sons which is defam­a­to­ry, then the per­son defamed may have an action in defamation. Some­thing is defam­a­to­ry if it caus­es the audi­ence…