Anyone watching television over the Summer will have seen advertisements for the United Australia Party, led by Clive Palmer. In one version, a song is played with the lyrics ‘Australia ain't gonna cop it, no Australia's not gonna cop it, Aussies not gonna cop it any more.’

Universal Music owns the copyright in the Twisted Sister song We’re Not Gonna Take It, and they are not too pleased with Mr Palmer’s creation. In fact, they claim that Mr Palmer’s song amounts to an infringement of copyright and have asked the Federal Court to order that it not be played anymore. 

On 21 January 2019,  France’s data protection regulator, CNIL fined Google €50m ($80 million AUD) for breaches of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Congratulations to Holman Webb’s Workplace Relations team for their nomination as finalists for Workplace Relations and Employment Team of the Year in the Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards 2018

We are delighted to announce two promotions in our Brisbane office, effective from 1 July 2018:

Holman Webb is delighted to announce 8 internal promotions, effective 1 July 2018.   These promotions span our corporate and commercial, insurance, and workplace relations practices.

On the 25^th May 2018 the EU introduced a unified regulation to deal with the protection of data. This regulation is known as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

Holman Webb is proud to announce that John Wakefield was awarded Australian Arbitrator of the Year in the Australasian Law Awards 2018.

Every business needs to have an online presence. Many use a variety of different platforms to promote themselves in new and innovative ways.

Tips for lawyers

1. Be tech savvy; know what kind of block will be most effective.
2. Cover all bases; the primary purpose test and the discretionary matters in subsection (5) mean you need evidence about the website, its owner and its functions.
3. Investigate; no matter how hidden they are, you need to at least make reasonable efforts to determine the website operator’s identity and notify them of the proceedings.
4. Co-operate with the ISPs; this is a no fault provision- therefore, the proceedings don’t have to be adversarial. The more issues that can be agreed, the easier the application will be.
5. Think past the orders; have a mechanism in mind for expanding/modifying the initial orders to cover domain shifting etc.

Online copyright infringement has been a problem for content owners since the inception of the internet. The unauthorised downloading (and uploading) of copyright material is especially prevalent in Australia, where a 2015 survey estimated that Australians download movies, songs and television programs in the hundreds of millions each year.¹ While content owners have been criticised by some for not making content available in Australia (or making it available at a comparatively inflated price), the unauthorised downloading of copyright material is a clear infringement of content owners’ rights.  

Greg Malakou, Holman Webb CEO, speaks to Business First magazine about how innovation not only gives Holman Webb a competitive advantage in the market but is also fundamental to the firm’s growth strategy.