Another reminder has been sent by the Courts confirming that publication of photos on Twitter on or other web pages does not entitle the world at large to use or republish those photos.

Nothing about the internet changes the fact that the owner of the copyright in a book, movie or music is the only party that has the right to exploit that material. They can offer an end user a license to access the material for a fee, they can give an end user the right to download and play a movie for their personal use, or they can license a movie chain to play that movie in the cinema. Those rights belong to the owner of the copyright and no-one else has the right to use or access the material unless they have the permission (and paid the fee if required) of the rights holder.

The Supreme Court of Queensland has recently been asked to consider whether or not an exchange of emails between a potential purchaser and the agent of a vendor was sufficient to create a legally binding contract. The first question answered by the Court was whether or not the facts of the case supported the finding that a contract existed, and second whether or not that contract could be created on the mere sending of emails. In this case, there was no formal contract for the sale of land.

3D printing has been around in one form or another since 1984, when a process was introduced to transfer digital data into tangible objects. While initially utilised in experimental, technical and scientific endeavours, the technology has advanced to a point where “home printing” and desktop scale printers have been introduced to the market. The technology is now readily available to the consumer.