| First up this month, Dr. Anna Jellie and other members of our Biotech Team look at the ASX/AusBiotech Code of Practice for Reporting for Life Sciences Companies. This code sets out some best practice guidelines for disclosure relevant for companies listed, or proposing to list, on the ASX.
Earl Gray and Rob Batty of our Intellectual Property Group consider the impact of a recent copyright infringement case involving file sharing software.
Our third article continues our series of articles looking at supply agreements (most recently: Equipment Supply Contracts - The Ins and Outs - part 2). This time Mark Hargreaves and Don Holborow of our Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Team take a look this month at issues relevant to multi-vendor supply arrangements.
Finally this month, we revisit a story from earlier in the year, where a prosecution for DVD pirating has now been overturned. Does this now mean future offenders are safe from imprisonment?
A number of people have asked for links to the various articles made available to attendees at the recent Auckland ICT Cluster marketing workshop and the following networking and legal seminar sessions. We've included these links below.
This will be our last edition for 2005 and we wish you all a happy holiday season. We will be back with our first edition for 2006 in February.
Regards,
Simpson Grierson's x-tech group
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| Simpson Grierson is NZBio's Premier Commercial Legal Partner |
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Information Technology and E-Business
Telecommunications
Biotechnology/Life Sciences
Intellectual Property
Commercialising Technology |
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Simpson Grierson's x-tech group provides suppliers and users of technology with specialist legal advice on information technology, intellectual property, telecommunications, biotechnology and the commercialisation of technology.
To contact us or if you would like to receive a list of all previous x-tech articles, or a hard copy of any articles please email x-tech@simpsongrierson.com or phone Amy Watkinson on +64 9 977 5446. |
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| To read the articles in this ezine you will require Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, please click on the Get Acrobat Reader logo to download your free copy. |
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| This article provides a brief overview of the recently introduced ASX/AusBiotech Code of Practice for Reporting by Life Science Companies. |
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| Following the US Supreme Courts unanimous decision in MGM v Grokster, the Federal Court of Australia in Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd v Sharman License Holdings Ltd found Sharman Networks, the company responsible for the software that powers the Kazaa file sharing network, liable for copyright infringement. The result in the Kazaa case has been welcomed by the recording industry as another major victory in the fight against internet piracy and may place further pressure on file sharing networks to "go legitimate". |
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| IT suppliers will often tender on the basis that there is one prime contractor who will supply the complete solution only to introduce separate agreements with third parties later on during negotiations. Customers need to recognise the risks in accepting this approach and be aware of the options to minimise those risks... |
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| Earlier in the year we covered the prosecution of an Otahuhu DVD pirate (see DVD Pirate Behind Bars). This prosecution has now been overturned by the High Court. You can read about this on page 4 of our specialist intellectual property publication 'On Your Marks'. |
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| Q: Who currently controls the Internet? |
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| A: To date, governance of the core systems of the Internet has rested with the United States. In 1998, the U.S. Department of Commerce selected non-profit organisation ICANN to oversee the Internet's master directories (known as "root zone files") which control the direction of Internet traffic. Although ICANN is a private organisation, the U.S. government ultimately retains a veto over Internet policy decisions. However, earlier this year the Working Group on Internet Governance, a multi-national body established by the United Nations, put forward several potential future models for Internet governance which, if implemented, would put control of the Internet into the hands of a new multi-national governing body. These potential models were the subject of heated debate in the lead up to, and during, the World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunisia last month. A last minute agreement was reached to set up a new international Internet forum, and leaving ICANN and the US government in control of the root zone files for the time being. Provision for review after five years looks set to ensure that Internet governance will remain a live issue. |
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| Answered by Karen Ngan and Jonathan Lewin. |
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| Related article : Internet Governance - Which Way Now? (November 2005) |
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