Tech law news 12 April 2010
Government confirms ban on software patents
Commerce Minister Simon Power has confirmed that the Government will adopt the recommendation to ban software patents in New Zealand. The speed of this announcement is somewhat surprising, as lobbying against the ban had been signalled.
The Economist on shorter copyright terms
The Economist says it is “time to tip the balance back” on copyright terms:
Largely thanks to the entertainment industry’s lawyers and lobbyists, copyright’s scope and duration have vastly increased. In America, copyright holders get 95 years’ protection as a result of an extension granted in 1998, derided by critics as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act”. They are now calling for even greater protection, and there have been efforts to introduce similar terms in Europe. Such arguments should be resisted.
In New Zealand, the copyright term is generally the life of the author plus 50 years – meaning that the period often cannot even be determined while the author is still alive.
Website operators: edit comments at your own risk
The Register reports on a recent case highlighting the defamation risk of editing website comments. A key issue in New Zealand is whether the website operator “assumes responsibility” for another person’s potentially defamatory comment. As I say in my article published here:
If your website publishes third-party content (e.g. forums, search results of other sites, user ratings, etc), ensure that you are not seen as “assuming responsibility” for that content. In practice, this can include not exercising editorial control over articles and comments. This will not always be possible or appropriate on some websites.
