University Rankings time

In the unlikely event that anyone missed The Times Higher Education
Supplement results, heres a summary of the results of Australian
institutions. My ANU alumni persona remains pleased, my Monash
academic spirit dampened a little.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/victorias-unis-slide-in-ranking/2007/11/08/1194329414546.html

Full details here http://www.thes.co.uk/ from 10 NOV 07.

YouTube v JewTube...

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/09/13/google-to-file-trademark-suit-against-jewtube/

October in summary

The Australia Law Teachers Association (ALTA) conference in Perth was very informative and productive as usual, I presented a paper based on research that I had done with two colleagues into improving outcomes for commerce/business students in their core law unit.

As is often the case with such gatherings, much of the benefit comes from the informal associations that are established and developed.  John Selby from Macquarie University and I took some tentative first steps in providing a forum to further co-operation and sharing between legal academics involved in teaching law to commerce/business students - very formative, early days at present - but the forum will be at www.buslawforum.com.

More rock stars and IP

one telling fans to steal, another going to reclaim his art from the internet

link to the story

Injurious Falsehoods?

Link to The Age article

In my experience Whirlpool.net.au has been a practical and valuable resource for many answers IT, providing on occasion, faster and more thorough responses than manufacturers and providers directly.

One aspect of forums such as Whirlpool.net.au is the ability to share actual accounts of product use and support experiences etc.

Regardless of the outcome of this matter the mere apprehension that the action being bought may cause would be the real loss.

American Airlines v Google

Another trademark keyword case against Google.

View the complain here (4.5Mb file)

More JD's...

A move to follow the American system and nomenclature?

Or that of Melbourne Uni?

link to story

All that money from international students...

The value to higher education in Australia of the cash grab for international student derived income questioned in a recent report

Link to article

Online TV Listings OK

THE Federal Court yesterday dismissed an action by the Nine Network against start-up independent electronic program guide supplier IceTV over claims that Ice infringed Nine's copyright to create its TV listings.

Link to article

Contracts on eBay

A NSW Supreme Cout decision yesterday considered the contractual status of auction sales on eBay.

The apparent of dearth of case law on this issue (evidenced by the judge referring to a German case) seems to confirm the view that the law applicable to an online auction is fundamentally the same as a physical auction.

http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/scjudgments/2007nswsc.nsf/6ccf7431c546464bca2570e6001a45d2/8f8790278a4ab31cca25732b002511e8?OpenDocument

http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/ebay-sales-stick-court-rules/2007/08/03/1185648121130.html

Eminem v Apple

Link to The Age Story

I have tried to get a copy of the complaint  here with no success - servers not coping with the requests?

The two parties have tangoed previously over Apple's use of an Eminem track in a iPod ad - link to that complaint.

Satire of NZ Parliament

Link to story

Has the comedy genre lost some of its best material?

Simpson's Cybersquatting Decision

Two things dear to my heart came together today - the world's best tv show and a legal question of online IP rights - a fairly straightforward case by all accounts.  Interesting timing for me, a week given my previous post referring to an article I had published in The Age last week on this general area.

Link to the Simpsons story

As an aside, I still havn't seen the Simpsons Movie yet - but I have the Gold Class Cinema tickets standing by.

My piece in The Age Business Section

It's been my experience that there is much confusion amongst business people, in particular small business people, as to the rights that arise from business name and domain name registrations.  I had a very brief overview of this area published in The Age last Friday.

Link to the article

LARGE Lectures

One of my colleagues, a very gifted educator, had 484 students, literally standing room only, in his lecture last week.  Thankfully I don't have those numbers to deal with - but there are certainly challenges in dealing with the 300+ that I have each week.  I've been seeking out some practical wisdom in an attempt to make these lectures more engaging, links to some useful tips are below.

Prepare for the ear, not the eye

Tools for Teaching - Preparing to Teach the Large Lecture Course

Student finances

Link to an article on The Age website based on a large study conducted by Associate Professor Marcia Devlin at Melbourne University - painting a picture of student finances and working hours.

The findings remind me of a cartoon a colleague had in their office
when I was at Swinburne University - showing a classroom with one
student, who is telling the tutor 'the other students can't come to
to classes as they are all too busy working so can they afford to
attend university'.

still learning...

Monash University's logo motto is the latin "Ancora imparo", or "I am still learning", attributed to Michelangelo.

Since commencing part-time study in 1989, study that remains ongoing, this statement fairly well sums up my state over the last nearly two decades.

In addition to the formal, structured learning I'm currently undertaking, I have commenced my own informal study of mandarin chinese - primarily based on the ChineseLearnOnline.com

 material.  Lots of resources on the web - of varying quality and usefulness - much of it free of charge.

It's proving to be a very challenging exercise - and has provided some insight into and empathy for the experience of the many Chinese students attempting to learn to a foreign legal system in a tongue that it is not their own.

Zaijian dajia.

Just what the world needs...

another blog.

This new blog, maintained by Mark Bender, will be primarily concerned with professional aspects of my life - the law, the teaching of law (in particular the teaching of law to non-law students studying Business or Commerce), legal research and academia generally.

There are many views expressed about the role (or even necessity) of blogs by academics - see for example - but it is undeniable that blogs and other forms of (more accessible) self-publishing are going to continue to increase in terms of both the content they provide and the number of readers they attract. This is poignantly illustrated by Time magazine's Person of the Year award for 2006 -

So Mark Bender's views, experiences and reflection, for what they're worth, will follow on this blog.