Tech law update 19 May 2010
Trade Me piracy prosecution
The NZ Herald reports:
An Auckland student has incurred the wrath of computer giant Microsoft after selling unlicensed versions of its products through online auctioneers Trade Me. Shaahil Ali of Papatoetoe was ordered by the Manukau District Court to pay the US-based multinational $22,176 [plus costs] after he admitted copying its programs, then selling them on.
Ali sold 21 pirated copies of Microsoft Office 2007, netting $6,400. That works out at about $304 per copy – $105 more than buying the Home version from Dick Smith (though he may have been selling a Pro version). The fact that an unsophisticated operation such as Ali’s was able to net several thousand dollars for essentially no outlay highlights the challenge of fighting piracy. It also provides a reminder that not all piracy is simply about losses to rights-holders, but also unjust / illegal enrichment of the infringers.
That said, New Zealand is not too bad in the piracy stakes. A new study by the Business Software Alliance shows New Zealand has the 4th lowest rate of software piracy world-wide. However, the Dominion Post reports that this low piracy rate has not been “rewarded” with lower prices for consumers.
More pay for play
Aussie gyms have been hit with a 1500% rise in music royalty charges, following a decision of the Australian Copyright Tribunal enabling the hike. This could have implications in New Zealand, with a fees revamp expected later this year. Which would seem likely, as the New Zealand organisation administering licensing fees – Phonographic Performances New Zealand – shares many of the same members as its Australian counterpart.
Privacy in a nutshell
Wellington barrister Stephen Price has won the Sir Geoffrey Palmer chocolate fish prize for best definition of “privacy”:
Privacy is what people believe they have lost when they complain about their privacy being infringed.
A good example of which is provided here:
A magazine did not intrude into a young woman’s privacy when it published photos that she had uploaded to social networking site Bebo when she was 15 because the images had already been widely circulated online… “The magazine had not taken the material from the complainant’s Bebo site; rather it had published a piece commenting on something that had widespread circulation online (having been taken from the Bebo page sometime ago by others) and was easily accessed by Google searches,” said the PCC’s ruling.
