[LINK] Legal processes are not obvious [was: "Men at work" up a gum tree]

Kim Holburn kim at holburn.net
Fri Feb 5 11:43:46 AEDT 2010


In all our copyright law (or IP laws) there is no-one looking at or  
speaking for the public domain.

It may be that the judge can only rule on what is placed before him  
but we have a system where anyone can register copyright a public  
domain work and no-one questions it (unless they are taken to court).

If it is the case that the Kookaburra tune does come from the Welsh  
folk song then these guys have been making money off something that  
didn't belong to them.

Seems like a crappy system to me.

And this is apparently all the fault of those bastards at Spicks &  
Specks who had to go and mention it on TV.

On 2010/Feb/05, at 9:44 AM, Stephen Wilson wrote:

>
> Craig Sanders wrote:
>> On Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 08:50:13AM +1100, Philip Argy wrote:
>>> In Australia judges base their decisions on the evidence tendered  
>>> in the
>>> case - not on what is in Wikipedia!
>> well, yes, obviously.
> Actually I don't think it is at all obvious.
>
> I think most non-lawyer members of the public believe that judges can
> and do consider any information that is at hand.  This presumption
> underpins the occasional dismay that members of the public have when
> counterintuitive sentences are handed down.  It also gives licence to
> shock jocks to second guess judges.  "What was the judge thinking?!!"
> "Why didn't they consider such and such??!!".
>
> There are strict judicial processes that limit what judges can  
> consider
> in making their findings.  Now, we can argue about the merits of the
> system (and we can argue about copyright and intellectual property  
> law)
> but it's really not fair to label anyone an "idiot" in this particular
> case.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Stephen Wilson.
>
>
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Kim Holburn
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