Stokes, Michael --- "Editorial" [2001] JlLawInfoSci 12; (2001) 12(2) Journal of Law, Information and Science 157

• Editorial

Editorial

The first article in this issue, ‘Legal Issues Relating to Free and Open Source Software’ by Prof Brian Fitzgerald and Graham Bassett examines many of the legal issues surrounding free and open source software and the licensing arrangements used to ensure that it remains free and open. It considers the advantages and disadvantages of open source software compared with proprietorial software and outlines the history of the open source and free software movements before examining some open source and free licences and some of the legal issues to which they give rise. The second part of the paper is the transcript of proceedings at a seminar at Santa Clara University on legal and commercial difficulties relating to open source software and includes contributions from Larry Rosen, David Schellhase, Yancy Lind and Bill Lard.

In the last twenty years, China has opened its economy up to the world. Central to that process has been the gradual development of a modern legal system incorporating, among other things, a developing system of intellectual property rights. Like other large economies, it has had to adapt its intellectual property laws to new information technologies. An article by Prof Xiaoqing Feng, ‘Recent Developments in Chinese Intellectual Property Law’ analyses the Chinese response to two of the intellectual property issues raised by the new technologies, the protection of intellectual property rights in integrated circuit layout designs and the extension of copyright protection to transmission over information networks. The note ‘Proof Analysis of the Performance of China’s Patent System’ by Liu Hua and Xiao Hong-rong examines an aspect of China’s intellectual property law from a different perspective. It explores the relationship between the number of patent applications in China and the growth of the Chinese economy, concluding that there is a correlation between the number of patent grants and the Chinese GDP.

With the growth of the internet, especially of e-commerce and internet advertising, domain names are of increasing commercial importance. As a result, there is a growing number of disputes over the right to use particular domain names. ‘Domain Names in Australia – legal and contractual dispute resolution’ by Owen Bradfield, examines the Australian system for administering Australian Domain names, placing that system in the international context of domain name regulation. It also considers the legal protection of domain names under such branches of the law as trade marks, trade practices and passing off.

Spam, bulk commercial email, is regarded by many users of email as a nuisance and as a serious waste of time. ‘Recent Developments in Australian Spam Law’ by Jeremy Malcolm, examines Australian approaches to regulating spam, including industry self-regulation and current statute and case law applicable to it. The article starts by considering the recommendations of the National Office for the Information Economy with respect to spam, before considering industry guidelines. It also examines the law applicable to spam, including the Trade Practices Act, the Privacy Act, the Corporations Law and the Criminal Code Act. After a short comparison of this legislation with the United States response to spam, the article considers the availability of common law remedies in torts and contract to control both the transmission of spam and interference with the receipt of spam by those opposed to its transmission.

Dow Jones & Co Inc v Gutnick [2002]HCA 56 is the leading case on when work is published on the internet for the purposes of the law of defamation, when it is uploaded or when it is down loaded. The case decided that publication occurs each time material is down loaded so that material placed on the internet in New Jersey is published each time it is downloaded, enabling a person to read it. The note, ‘When Global Highways Intersect Local Laws: Defamation via the Internet – Dow Jones & Co Inc v Gutnick [2002]HCA 56,’ by Prof Eugene Clark and Gonzalo Villalta Puig examines the reasoning in the case and some of its implications, suggesting that international agreement may be the best way of dealing with the problems posed by the case.

The issue ends with reviews of Rolf Weber Regulatory models for the Online World, M. Eifert; Clarisse Girot; M. Groothuis and W. Voermans, E-Government and Its Implications for Administrative Law, Lucie MCR Guibault Copyright Limitations and Contracts: An Analysis of the Contractual Overidability of Limitations on Copyright and Christopher Heath and Anselm Kamperman Sanders Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: Challenges for Asia, and Lee Bygrave Data Protection Law: Approaching Its Rationale, Logic and Limits.

Michael Stokes

Editor