The judge overseeing a copyright infringement lawsuit against an electronic music duo and Air France over the 1977 disco hit ‘Love Is In The Air’ has denied a request to re-open the case or tweak his reasons for rejecting most claims for damages, saying the plaintiffs’ opportunity to raise an argument they had likely “overlooked” had passed.
A Federal Court judge overseeing Papua New Guinean Politician William Duma’s defamation lawsuit against Fairfax Media has said he would like to move case management hearings online permanently, saying the move to virtual courtrooms was one good that had resulted from the coronavirus pandemic.
A judge has given the green light for HarperCollins to use several documents from a royal commission in its defence of defamation proceedings brought against it by two psychiatrists at the centre of the deep sleep therapy scandal that rocked the medical world in the 1960s and 70s.
Restrictions to combat COVID-19 that forced Australia’s courts to go virtual have had unforseen benefits, and Australia’s top law firms say they don’t want online hearings to be scrapped when social distancing measures are eased.
Australian media outlets are facing liability for defamatory remarks left under news articles they posted on Facebook, after a court of appeal found that the companies are publishers of the third-party comments.
A judge has found that an Oregon electronic music duo “flagrantly” copied the 1977 disco hit ‘Love is in the Air’ but has rejected most claims for damages because the copyright holder of the song sued for each streaming and download of the song, rather than for the creation of the infringing work.
Venture capitalist Elaine Stead is pushing forward with her defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax Media despite what she has called an “inadequate” third attempt at a defence by the publisher.
A theatre producer facing a lawsuit by his former collaborators for stealing the script for his off-Broadway puppet show parody of the 80s TV sitcom Golden Girls has lost his own legal action against them, which alleged they defamed him and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by talking to a New York Times reporter about their lawsuit.
Nine-owned Fairfax Media has been sent back to the drawing board to redo what a judge called a “very unhelpful” defence to a defamation lawsuit brought by venture capitalist Elaine Stead over articles that appeared in the Australian Financial Review about her role in the collapse of fund manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments.
The High Court will not hear an appeal by the ABC and Nine seeking to revive their truth defence in a defamation lawsuit brought by Chinese businessman Chau Chak Wing.