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Australia

Submission + - Hackers release AAPT data to protest Aussie policies (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Anonymous is releasing some of the 40GB of data it claims to have stolen from Australian internet service provider AAPT. The hack is reportedly in protest against Australia's proposed data retention regime, which would mandate ISPs to collect and hold transmission data from its users for up to two years.

Submission + - Three-strikes copyright law in NZ halves infringement (itnews.com.au) 1

Submitted by
Bismillah
Bismillah writes: "The "Skynet" copyright act has been in effect for six months in New Zealand and rights holders reckon it halved the number of infringements in the first month.

Even so, they're not happy and say over forty per cent of Kiwis continue to infringe on line.

The fix? Rights holders want the current NZ$25 infringement notice processing fee payable to ISPs to be dropped to just a few dollars or even pennies, so that they can send out thousands of notices a month.

ISPs want the fee to increase four times instead, to cover their costs.

Unfortunately, the submissions for the review of the infringement notice fees are kept secret by the government."
Australia

Submission + - Aussie network engineers form members-only ISP (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by schliz
schliz writes: A group of Australian network engineers is planning to launch a not-for-profit internet service provider that will provide access to the nation's high-speed NBN fibre network for like-minded people.

The cooperative, dubbed "No ISP", has no staff or add-on services to keep costs down. Members will be able to 'trade' excess download quota for a market-based price, depending on supply and demand.
Patents

Submission + - US patent trolling costs $29 billion a year (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by
Bismillah
Bismillah writes: "This piece of research from Boston University seems to put an end to claims that patent trolling is "socially valuable" and instead, is a social loss.

The total cost to society could be around $80 billion according to the researchers. What's more, the costs have gone up fourfold since 2005."
The Courts

Submission + - Samsung sues Aussie patent office in Apple suit (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by schliz
schliz writes: Samsung has sued the Australian patent commissioner — and by extension the Australian Government — in an attempt to force a review of patents key to its global battle with smartphone rival Apple. The Korean manufacturer claims that the commissioner should not have been able to grant four patents used by Apple in its case against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1. The Government solicitor will face Samsung in court on June 25.
Piracy

Submission + - Rights Holders See Little Point Creating Legal Content Sources (itnews.com.au) 1

Submitted by aesoteric
aesoteric writes: Six weeks after Hollywood lost a landmark internet piracy case in Australia, it appears the film studios have gone cold on the idea of helping develop legal avenues to access copyrighted content as a way to combat piracy. Instead, they've produced research to show people will continue pirating even if there are legitimate content sources available. The results appear to support the studio's policy position that legislation is a preferable way of dealing with the issue.

Submission + - Miners Send Drones To Work (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by aesoteric
aesoteric writes: Australia's top miners have opened a new front in their march to automation, flying unmanned aerial vehicles in increasing numbers at remote sites across the country. They've been used to inspect a fire-damaged oil rig, perform aerial photography and stockpile surveys. There is also a trend towards non US-built UAVs, due to the lag in receiving export approvals for the aircraft and spare parts.
Apple

Submission + - Steve Wozniak Calls For Open Apple (itnews.com.au) 1

Submitted by aesoteric
aesoteric writes: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has voiced a renewed desire to see the company open its architecture to the masses, allowing savvy users to expand and add to their products at will. However, Wozniak qualified his desire for a more open Apple by arguing that openness should not impinge on the quality of the products themselves. He also sees any change of heart on openness as a challenge when Apple continues to rake in huge cash with its current model.
Iphone

Submission + - Botched Repair Likely Cause of Combusting iPhone After Flight (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by aesoteric
aesoteric writes: The combustion of an Apple iPhone 4 after a regional flight in Australia was likely caused by a botched repair of the handset by an unauthorised repairer, according to air safety investigators in the US and Australia. A small metal screw had been misplaced in the battery bay of the handset. The screw punctured the battery casing and causing an internal short circuit, causing the iPhone to emit dense smoke.
Privacy

Submission + - Even private Facebook photos are public: Australia (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by littlekorea
littlekorea writes: Australia's telecommunications regulator has ruled that one of the country's largest broadcasters, Channel 7, did not breach the industry code of conduct by lifting photos of deceased persons and minors from social networking site Facebook. Significantly, the regulator noted that it doesn't have the legal authority to crack down on broadcasters that lift material tagged as 'private', looking to the Attorney General to provide some legal clarity.
Apple

Submission + - Australian court blocks sales of Samsung Galaxy Ta (itnews.com.au) 2

Submitted by jimboh2k
jimboh2k writes: Apple has succeeded in blocking the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia until a final hearing can be heard in the case down under. The judgment on Thursday could effectively kill chances of the tablet ever launching properly in Australia after Samsung claimed further delays to the product would threaten hopes of gaining traction.
Australia

Australian Stats Agency Goes Open Source 51

Posted by timothy from the as-it-should-be dept.
jimboh2k writes "The Australian Bureau of Statistics will use the 2011 Census of Population and Housing as a dry run for XML-based open source standards DDI and SDMX in a bid to make for easier machine-to-machine data, allowing users to better search for and access census datasets. The census will become the first time the open standards are used by an Australian Federal Government agency."

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