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Freedom to Differ 

A blog that speaks freely about legal issues facing the media and the internet. It mainly covers issues relating to the legal regulation of the internet and the media, but at times Constitutional law issues and politics are discussed. While the focus is on Australia, developments in other nations around the world are considered as well.
Post Frequency: 25.4/day Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 09:11:39 Recent Entries: 2028
Go to Freedom to Differ, find other International Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Twitter down ... again
Posted on April 20, 2008In one of the many instances of Twitter being down, MG Siegler gets all philosophical about and ask If Twitter Breaks in the Woods and No One Can Tweet About It, Is It Really Broken? Read it here.
Australia 2020
Posted on April 19, 2008The final verdict on the value of the Australia 2020 Summit probably won't be known until the Rudd Government delivers its response to the ideas later this year. However, my initial response is that it is has been a self-congratulatory and highly political event that continues Rudd's approach to governing...
Oregon puts copyright law to an unusual (and unfortunate) use
Posted on April 18, 2008Techdirt reports on Oregon's decision to stop sites from reproducing Oregon's laws: Well here's a story about copyright that's so bizarre it makes you think that there must be a mistake somewhere -- but it seems to be completely true. Apparently, Oregon is complaining to sites like Justia (which publish...
"Borrowing" wifi
Posted on April 18, 2008Only 12% of people apparently "borrow" unsecured wifi. I'm just surprised the percentage isn't higher: Although it is illegal in some parts of the world, 12% of U.S. and U.K. respondents to an Accenture survey have logged on to someone else's unsecured Wi-Fi connection...
One for coffee lovers
Posted on April 18, 2008If, like me, you enjoy a good cup of coffee (or several), then check out Mashable's list of nine must see sites for coffee lovers: The Mashable team is from all over the planet with Pete hailing from Scotland, Stan in Croatia, and the rest of us all over the...
No 10 is all a Twitter
Posted on April 18, 2008In the UK Gordon Brown is using the internet to reach out to the electorate: When Tony Blair wanted to get his message across without having to rely on lobby journalists to pass it on undiluted, he went over their heads to talk to the public from the GMTV sofa...
Back in the top 100
Posted on April 18, 2008Last August I was surprised to discover that this blog had made the Top 100 Australian Blog Index (see here). I managed to stay in the list for a few months before slipping out again. However, changes to Alexa's ranking system (see here) has resulted in my scraping my way...
The noise of Web 2.0
Posted on April 18, 2008Alexander Vanelsas astutely observes that the noise in Web 2.0 is mainly a Tech Elite?s problem: Erick Schonfeld has a funny article today on TechCrunch in which he predicts/hopes that web 3.0 is about removing the noise. We all recognize the problem he describes...
Password peril
Posted on April 18, 2008I think we've all been guilty of this: Using the same password for multiple Web pages is the Internet-era equivalent of having the same key for your home, car and bank safe-deposit box. Even though a universal password is like gold for cyber crooks because they can use it to...
Candidates on Colbert
Posted on April 18, 2008On Thursday night Stephen Colbert had an extraordinary line up of politicians - Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama. What a show!
Turning the wireless off
Posted on April 18, 2008The University of Chicago Law School has made the decision to remove internet access from most of its classrooms: The University of Chicago Law School has removed Internet access in most of its classrooms because of a growing problem of students surfing the Web on laptops during lectures...
Time for a break
Posted on April 18, 2008Six weeks ago ago I took a virtual mini-break or secular sabbath (see here). At the time I doubted whether I could actually do it, but in the end I found that I enjoyed my break immensely. Today I read this article on The Age website and decided I should...
Microsoft has the last laugh
Posted on April 18, 2008In turns out that Microsoft has a sense of humour after all ... Guys, the joke's on us. Big time. Bloggers have been chortling all day over a goofy video made for Microsoft's sales team that made its way onto YouTube. The video, "Rocking Our Sales," by "Bruce ServicePack and...
Uncensored blogging
Posted on April 17, 2008TorrentFreak reports that The Pirate Bay is launching an uncensored blogging service: In their ever continuing battle to free the Internet, The Pirate Bay has now launched an uncensored blogging service, called Baywords. The service is intended to be a safe haven for bloggers who want to be able to...
Stewart interviews Bush (sort of)
Posted on April 17, 2008Jon Stewart interviews Will Ferrell as George W Bush Sunday night's Night of Too Many Stars benefit for autism education on Comedy Central: Will Ferrell as Bush w/Jon Stewart on FunnyOrDie.com
Googolopoly
Posted on April 16, 2008Box.net presents Googolopoly: At Box, we obviously spend a lot of time talking about what?s going on on the internet. With such a high quantity of real and rumored products and acquisitions announcements, Google obviously gets a lot of attention in our animated discussions...
Facebook fans (or not)
Posted on April 16, 2008Australian workers want access to Facebook: YOUNGER generation workers see advantages in working environments which allow access to social network websites, a survey has found. Sixty eight per cent of respondents believe that allowing employees to access social networking sites showed employers trusted them...
"Twitter. Don?t leave home without it."
Posted on April 16, 2008TechCrunch's Michael Arrington was spot when he observed, "Twitter. Don?t leave home without it.", while commenting on this remarkable story: When Egyptian police scooped up UC Berkeley graduate journalism student James Karl Buck, who was photographing a noisy demonstration, and dumped him in a jail cell last week, they didn't...
The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It
Posted on April 15, 2008Professor Jonathan Zittrain has a fascinating new book out on the future of the internet. The Boston Review has an article based on the book. Read that article here and order the book from Amazon here.
Harry Potter Lexicon trial
Posted on April 15, 2008Read about the first day of the Harry Potter Lexicon trial here (from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog): When J.K. Rowling concluded her testimony today in the case of Warner Bros. and Rowling vs. RDR Books, the Law Blog stepped outside at the recess to have a chat with...
Catty Facebookers
Posted on April 15, 2008Funny or Die dramatises what happens when two Facebook friends meet: Catty Facebookers on FunnyOrDie.com
Cewebrities and other internet people
Posted on April 15, 2008As I was writing my piece for The Courier Mail on cewebrity over the weekend, I couldn't get this song out of head: http://view.break.com/362585 - Watch more free videos On a related note, Techdirt's Mike Masnick was impressed that the Associated Press wasn't blaming YouTube for the Florida bashing: Last...
Writing off your personal life
Posted on April 15, 2008Wired's Steve Friess raises a very intriguing tax question, "When Your Personal Life Is Your Business, Is Everything a Tax Write-off?": Sometime last year, podcaster Anneke Rudegeair bought three different brands of condoms. This month, she sat down with TurboTax and listed the cost of rubbers as a deduction...
Censorship workarounds
Posted on April 15, 2008CNET's Graham Webster explains why he posts censorship workarounds: Does posting censorship workarounds help the censors? That's the question I've been mulling for the last few days. I asked for your comments, and the verdict is in: Almost no one thinks we should keep these tricks to ourselves...
Understanding the Facebook News Feed
Posted on April 15, 2008TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid highlights a commonly misunderstood feature of the Facebook News Feed (I know it took me a while to realise this): The Facebook News Feed is a strange beast. Upon its release, it was met with an extremely negative reception as members protested their new ?auto-stalker?, but it...
A right to snoop
Posted on April 15, 2008In the US, newspapers are arguing that they have a First Amendment right to snoop on their readers: Usually, when people talk about the trade offs between privacy and freedom of the press, the argument is about whether the public has the right to know some fact about an individual?s...
Content = commodity
Posted on April 15, 2008ReadWriteWeb explains how content is becoming a commodity: Over the weekend, it seemed that everyone in the tech blogosphere contributed to the discussion around fractured blog comments; Robert Scoble even went so far as to say that the "era of blogger's control" is over...
Jakarta copies Beijing when it comes to censorship
Posted on April 14, 2008The Australian examines Indonesia's decision to block YouTube and other video sites: INDONESIA'S blocking this week of YouTube and other video-sharing websites was a direct copying of repressive Chinese censorship methods but was a strategy doomed to failure, one of the country's most senior journalists predicted...
Should we give Andrew Baron some credit?
Posted on April 14, 2008Yesterday I blogged about how Rocketboom's Andrew Baron was auctioning off his Twitter account on eBay (see here). Perhaps unsurprisingly this move has attracted a wave of attention from the blogosphere (and twitsophere). Now Charles Cooper chimes in with the observation that we should give Andrew Baron some credit for...
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Scalia Opens Religious Freedom Conference
Justice Antonin Scalia gave the keynote address at a conference on...
Ads Ask New Hampshire Candidates For Religious Freedom Positions
A coalition of groups advocating church-state separation is runnin...
Must Freedom of Expression include the license to offend?
Yes
Imposing any limits on speech, no matter how seemingly reasonab...
I'm wondering about how the law applies to my marriage. How does being married differ from being single in the eyes of the law
Short answer is that it probably depends on the State you live in, whether the c...
How does assault differ from battery?
Assault requires only the expectation of contact; battery requires contact....

Must Freedom of Expression include the license to offend?
Yes
Imposing any limits on speech, no matter how seemingly reasonab...
I'm wondering about how the law applies to my marriage. How does being married differ from being single in the eyes of the law
Short answer is that it probably depends on the State you live in, whether the c...
How does assault differ from battery?
Assault requires only the expectation of contact; battery requires contact....








