The Federal Government has responded swiftly to the furore surrounding the copyright ruling on the Optus TV Now service: it has announced that the Australian Law Reform Commission will review the operation of copyright in the digital environment.

OzHub, the Macquarie Telecom-led cloud computing alliance, has come down firmly on the side of Optus over the copyright controversy surrounding Optus TV Now, warning that any moves to change the law "risk branding Australia a global luddite state."

Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, is reportedly foreshadowing changes in the legislation to stop Optus offering its TV Now service, following the company's court win last week. Any changes are likely to whittle away at the exemption we currently enjoy to time-shift programs.

Optus has moved to play down the implications of the copyright ruling on its 'TV Now' service for lucrative deals covering exclusive rights to deliver popular free-to-air content to mobile devices

  A last-minute stay-of-execution means users' files on Megaupload are safe for the moment; they just can't be accessed.  

It would seem that when the rules of copyright are rigorously applied, common sense goes out the window.

Megaupload, rated by some as the 13th most visited site on the Internet was taken down late last week by the FBI under accusation of copyright infringement, however many other rights have been infringed by their actions.

Channel Seven sourced images of a grieving family from Facebook as part of a report into the sentencing of a convicted murderer.  A complaint regarding the use of these images was dismissed by the ACMA.

Apple could face a charge of up to US$1.6 billion if it wants to continue using the iPad name for its popular tablet devices in mainland China after a significant copyright infringement court loss to a Hong Kong LCD maker.

Predictably, a proposal by five big ISPs to counteract the downloading of copyrighted material in Australia has not found favour with the copyright holders.