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International Law

Freedom to Differ

A blog that speaks freely about legal issues facing the media and the internet. It mainly covers issues relating to the legal regulation of the internet and the media, but at times Constitutional law issues and politics are discussed. While the focus is on Australia, developments in other nations around the world are considered as well.

Post Frequency: 25.4/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 09:11:39

Techdirt: For Staunch Copyright Defenders, Big Singers From Big Labels Seem To Copy From Others A Lot ...

Posted on June 18, 2010
Reader Dan points us to a long, but fascinating article by someone tracing a number of stories involving famous Western pop stars copying famous songs that originated in Cameroon, without any credit (or, of course, money) -- including the song by Shakira that is currently the World Cup theme song...

Is the internet killing defamation lawsuits?

Posted on June 18, 2010
A really interesting post on THR, Esq. suggests that the internet hasn't resulted in the proliferation of defamation lawsuits that was once expected; instead, it could be that in fact the internet is resulting in fewer defamation lawsuits: Back in the early days of the Web, plenty of media lawyers...

Daily Twitter Links

Posted on June 18, 2010
These are some of the things I've been tweeting about yesterday and today: i only just noticed this in my facebook news feed ... "Facebook Comments Getting a ?Like? Button" http://j.mp/92T1sm does anyone else use plancast at all? ... "Plancast Plans To Spread Throughout The Web With An API And...

Opening monologue at the 14th Annual Webby Awards

Posted on June 18, 2010
Check out this very funny opening monologue by B.J. Novak at the 14th Annual Webby Awards:

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And the best law review title of the year is ...

Posted on June 17, 2010
I had to chuckle when I read the title and abstract of this law review article from Rebecca Wood at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas: "The High Court's Agenda: More Interesting than it First Appears" REBECCA WOOD, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Email: rebecca...

Daily Twitter Links

Posted on June 16, 2010
These are some of the things I've been tweeting about today: time magazine: "Battle Rages Over Australia's Internet Filter" http://j.mp/a0rbwh #openinternet #nocleanfeed from the daily beast ... "Obama?s Oval Office Speech: Reactions and Commentary" http://j...

FML no more for the MTA in NYC

Posted on June 16, 2010
Photo: Aman*Duh's Flickr via Gothamist For the past few months, a set of signs at the 14th Street and Sixth Avenue subway stop have reflected what many a rider ? running late, overheated, or otherwise dejected ? has no doubt tweeted: "FML." But the surprisingly culturally astute MTA is now...

Blogging at Freedom to Differ for over four years

Posted on June 16, 2010
I was playing around with the settings on my blog today and I discovered that I started blogging here at Freedom to Differ just over four years ago (since 7 June 2006). For a whole range of reasons, the focus of this blog has evolved over time, as has the...

Funny? Or sexist and demeaning? I report, you decide

Posted on June 16, 2010
Allure magazine has written a poem about the beauties on FoxNews, with this provocative headline, "Fox News's Hot Anchors: With its bevy of babes, the network should be called the Foxy News Channel": Roger Ailes is such a whiz At the infotainment biz...

Kirby wins US legal award

Posted on June 16, 2010
Retired High Court judge Michael Kirby has been named the joint winner of a US legal award, the Gruber Justice Prize. Kirby will share the accolade ? and $578,000 in prize money ? with South African Professor John Dugard. Dugard has served on the United Nations International Law Commission and...

Don't swear: new on the spot fines in Queensland for public nuisance

Posted on June 16, 2010
The Queensland Government has announced that they will introduce on-the-spot fines for public nuisance, clearing up the workload of the Magistrates Court: The Queensland Government will extend on-the-spot fines for public nuisance offences. Matters such as disorderly conduct are currently dealt with in the courts with fines ranging from $100...

Techdirt: Twins In Legal Fight After Making Disparaging Comments About Professor On Facebook | Techdirt

Posted on June 15, 2010
We've bee seeing more and more stories like this, and it's pretty disturbing that people still freak out so much over a minor negative comment. Apparently, two twin brothers at the University of Calgary made some disparaging remarks about a professor, setting up a page that read "I no longer...

More on copyright and Glee

Posted on June 15, 2010
I blogged last week about the difficulty real life Glee clubs might have in obtaining the necessary copyright licenses for a lot of the music that is used on the TV show Glee. Well, according to THR, Esq., even Glee the TV show had difficulty securing the necessary permissions for...

Chance: a great ad from DDB France

Posted on June 15, 2010
Here?s a great ad from DDB France which has just been uploaded onto the D&AD YouTube channel. I won?t actually mention the client, as it will somewhat spoil the punchline. The ad is called ?Chance?. via mumbrella.com.au

Fictillimanjaro raffle: support Evan Smith raise money for the Humpty Dumpty Foundation

Posted on June 15, 2010
My friend Evan Smith (aka @fictillius) is raising money for the Humpty Dumpty Foundation by climbing Mt Kilimanjaro: Inspired by Gary Gerstle who completed the climb in 2009 I will be climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in 2010. Man Investments has always been a proud supporter of Humpty Dumpty and I am...

Open and Shut: Much deserved recognition for AustLII

Posted on June 15, 2010
Congratulations to the Australasian Legal Information Institute on winning the award from the Internet domain name administrators for Australia and New Zealand for the best openness initiative for Austlii , the online legal public library service. AustLII won on the basis of best practice for free access, high usage- close...

Daily Twitter Links

Posted on June 15, 2010
These are some of the things I've been tweeting about today: worth reading ... @HowardKurtz contends that "Fellow journalists let Helen Thomas down by not reining her in" http://j.mp/9fTaZT brightkite struggles to keep up with foursquare and gowalla ...

Wonkette: All of America Captured In Single Photograph

Posted on June 14, 2010
Wonkette operative ?Lily E.? was just driving around the outskirts of Madison, Virginia, this weekend when she was compelled to snap this picture of America 2010. It?s all there, everything. Everything. via wonkette.com

Daily Twitter Links

Posted on June 14, 2010
These are some of the things I've been tweeting about today: some good tips for safari 5 http://bit.ly/9piEXO the new york times on us-uk tension ... "Insults Across The Water: After all these years, the Brits still don't get us" http://j.mp/aDhzUZ ross douthat says "The victories of so many Republican...

Roger Ebert on Twitter

Posted on June 13, 2010
Roger Ebert, one of my favourite Twitterers, recently wrote a great post about what Twitter means to him, beginning with this: I vowed I would never become a Twit. Now I have Tweeted nearly 10,000 Tweets. I said Twitter represented the end of civilization...

Should Channel Nine punish Andrew Johns for his racial slur?

Posted on June 13, 2010
Rugby League just seems to lurch from one scandal to another these days, but it was still very disappointing to see racism once again emerge as an issue in the game with the news that league legend Andrew Johns had said a racial slur that prompted Timana Tahu to walk...

Daily Twitter Links

Posted on June 13, 2010
These are some of the things I've been tweeting about today: i agree, foursquare should introduce a "check out" feature ... "Here's What Foursquare Needs To Do With Its New Money" http://j.mp/cLQiDs joan rivers cracks me up ... "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work Movie -- Don't Call It a...

Charles M Blow: Friends, Neighbors and Facebook

Posted on June 13, 2010
Mister Rogers would be so disappointed in me. Aside from the people who live in my building, I know the name of only one person who lives on my block: Roger Cohen, a Times colleague. I want to blame it on the fact that I?m absolutely awful with names and...

Savage Minds: An article a day

Posted on June 13, 2010
Intellectuals ? including graduate students and professors ? should read an article a day. It?s a simple proposition: read an article a day. When you are done, make a quick note on what you have read in your notebook. Over time the notebook grows. And yet I honestly believe few...

Woody and Buzz star in a Google Search Story

Posted on June 13, 2010
via googleblog.blogspot.com

PHD Comics: World Cup vs. PhD

Posted on June 13, 2010
via www.phdcomics.com This made me chuckle.

Should we keep reality out of TV?

Posted on June 13, 2010
Over the weekend I blogged about Glee and copyright, so I was amused to read this short post that suggested the problem of judging TV programs against reality is not just confined to Glee: You have to love it when reality meets TV: Christina Mulligan examines the concept of Glee,...

ReadWriteWeb: Facebook Expands at the Cost of Local Social Networks

Posted on June 13, 2010
A year ago, we covered the global mapping of social networks by Vincenzo Cosenza, a public relations specialists and former Microsoft Italy marketer. Almost a year to the day later, Cosenza remapped the global use of social networks. Like his previous effort, Vincenzo's new maps were based on Alexa &...

The first "that's what she said" joke

Posted on June 12, 2010
Alfred Hitchcock was way ahead of his time. In this rare sound test recording for Hitchcock's 1929 film "Blackmail" he makes the first ever known recording of the joke "that's what she said." Well, his joke is actually the "as the girl said" version, but the joke has evolved, like...

Glee and copyright

Posted on June 12, 2010
In a recent guest post on the Balkinization blog, Christina Mulligan, described copyright law as the elephant in the middle of the Glee club: The fictional high school chorus at the center of Fox?s Glee has a huge problem ? nearly a million dollars in potential legal liability...

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