This week the South Australian Government suddenly vowed to overturn its new electoral laws thanks to a volatile mix of tabloid incitement, voter ignorance and a premier leery of losing a looming election — all fuelled by Twitter’s meth-paced rumour mill. Should government 2.0 become mob territory

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SA’s Govt 2.0 became mob rule

Fresh from victory, iiNet CEO Michael Malone spoke in a doorstop in front of the Federal Court about his win against the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft . The federation, which represents film and television studios, first dragged iiNet (and its chief executive Michael Malone) into the Federal Court back in November 2008 , arguing that the ISP infringed copyright by failing to take reasonable steps — including enforcing its own terms and conditions — to prevent customers copying films and TV shows over its network

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iiNet’s victorious Michael Malone: Video

The Pirate Party Australia has welcomed iiNet’s internet piracy victory over a coalition of film and TV studios, describing it as “a victory for common sense”, while civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) said sanity had prevailed.

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EFA, Pirate Party: iiNet win ‘common sense’

Hot on the heels of Telecom New Zealand’s major XT 3G network outage , its legacy CDMA network has also gone down. Telecom spokesperson Katherine Murphy said the 9am outage lasted just over half an hour and blamed a hardware fault. Murphy added that customer impact was limited thanks to overlapping coverage and Telecom backup procedures.

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Telecom NZ’s other mobile network fails

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) today said it was disappointed by its losing position in the internet piracy trial against local internet service provider (ISP) iiNet, but said it believed the verdict was not what the Federal Government wanted. Justice Cowdroy today handed iiNet a sound victory in the Australian ISP’s long-running battle against a coalition of film and television studios, finding in the Federal Court that iiNet did not authorise copyright infringement carried out by its customers using the BitTorrent file-sharing platform

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AFACT looks to govt after court loss

In response to a report on opening up government information, the Victorian Government has said that the base work for opening up its information, also called Government 2.0, will be laid out this year, with the default position being that all information should be accessible.

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Vic govt: Government 2.0 due this year

ZDNet.com.au has obtained permission to publish Justice Dennis Cowdroy’s summary — read this morning in court — to help understand the judgement of the iiNet versus Australian Federation against Copyright Theft court case. The studios first brought iiNet into the Federal Court back in November 2008 , arguing that the ISP infringed copyright by failing to take reasonable steps — including enforcing its own terms and conditions — to prevent customers copying films and TV shows over its network. However, in a packed courtroom in Sydney today, Justice Cowdroy said he found that iiNet did not authorise the infringement of the studios’ copyright

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Document: Judge’s summary of iiNet trial

Now that the bottled-up, rumour-fed hyperbole has died off, and now that the naysayers have had their, well, naysay — only now can the real contemplation of Apple’s iPad begin. And while the device is certain to shake up a broad range of online industries, one of its biggest lessons may well be for the world’s telecommunications carriers

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iPad teaches telcos to walk again

In an announcement yesterday, the Victorian Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor has called for a full review of smart meter consumer regulations following new electricity pricing structures and negative reaction. Batchelor also announced that he would temporarily stop charges for using the devices, which was introduced in September 2009, if the need arose. “I’m prepared to consider all options including, if necessary, imposing a moratorium on new tariffs until the regulatory investigation is complete,” said the minister.

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Vic smart meters under review

Justice Cowdroy today handed iiNet a sound victory in the Australian ISP’s long-running battle against a coalition of film and television studios, finding that iiNet did not authorise copyright infringement carried out by its customers.

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Why the court ruled for iiNet

Australian ISP iiNet was today announced as the victor in its long-running defence against a lawsuit by major film and TV studios represented by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT). iiNet chief Michael Malone (Credit: iiNet) Justice Cowdroy announced the verdict to a packed courtroom in Sydney today

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iiNet wins copyright court case

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has stood by his communications minister despite an audit office report critical of the way the government handled a tender process for its initial broadband network. The failed process cost the government and proponents more than $30 million, including $17 million for the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

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Rudd backs Conroy’s NBN failure

The judgement for the iiNet versus Australian Federation against Copyright Theft trial, or #iiTrial, is falling tomorrow.

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Poll: What’s your iiNet trial care factor?

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) had canvassed options to deal with the potential failure of the first, $4.7 billion National Broadband Network plan as early as August 2008, the government auditor has found. The Federal Government auditor-general, who had investigated the process at the request of former Shadow Communications Minister Nick Minchin, revealed the information in a report released this afternoon (PDF) into the first NBN request for proposals process, which was terminated in April 2009 and replaced with the Federal Government’s $43 billion plan to create its own NBN company. The initial RFP process had attracted a number of bids from the likes of Optus, Axia Netmedia, Acacia and the Tasmanian Government.

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DBCDE planned for NBN RFP failure

Darwin-based IT services group CSG has won preferred tenderer status for two whole-of-government contracts with the Northern Territory in the areas of desktop and server services and network management. (Dusk on Finke Road image by tensaibuta , CC2.0 ) The company had previously provided the services to the territorial government as a sub-contractor to other companies, but has now won prime status in their delivery

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CSG scores key NT contracts

SAP has just released its results for the year to 31 December 2009, pointing to a new deal with the National Australia Bank (NAB) as one of its most recent wins. Tim Ebbeck (Credit: SAP) NAB signed a deal with SAP in December to update existing SAP software and roll out the company’s new systems, according to SAP president and managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Tim Ebbeck. NAB was carrying out a complete program of works in its back office, front office and core banking, Ebbeck told ZDNet.com.au .

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SAP to construct NAB backbone

This is one of three interview videos with the Head of Procurement at Northumberland County Council. See the others and many more exclusive interviews in the spotlearn Suppliers Academy at www.spotlearn.com.

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SU3000 Helen Lisle Video1.flv

Most people head to the beach for the sun and sand, but I had an ulterior motive one day earlier this month as I headed out to beautiful Tootgarook Beach on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula: I needed coverage — and I’m not talking about sunscreen. Searching for shells, or just searching for a signal? (Credit: David Braue) I’m not sure where it came from, but it was there: four bars and full 3G coverage, which could just as easily be coming from Mount Martha across the water as from any nearby base stations

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The mobile compromise is still a beach

The National Broadband Network Company today said it was on track to finalise a short-list of network equipment and services suppliers by the end of January. In a statement, the company said it had received “many high quality responses” to a request for capability statement document it issued in late 2009.

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NBN Co vendor shortlist on track

For the first time in its 63 year history, Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate has opened its doors to the media. The intelligence organisation is home to the government’s latest effort to combat the growing tide of cyber crime and online espionage

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Inside the Defence Signals Directorate

in brief German software giant SAP has lost its Asia-Pac regional president and former Australian chief Geraldine McBride, with the executive to return to her home country of New Zealand. A spokesperson for the organisation said McBride had chosen to leave the company and departed on positive terms.

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SAP loses Geraldine McBride

Western Australia Police’s newly appointed chief information officer Craig Ward is making the state-wide police radio network and flexible access to skilled technology staff his top priorities. A police officer with 28 years experience, Ward moved to the CIO role from his previous position as director of Strategy and Performance in December 2009. “My job is making sure that what’s delivered from an IT systems perspective is what the operational side of the organisation needs,” he told ZDNet.com.au yesterday.

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WA Police appoints CIO

In his latest attack on the Federal Government’s plans to build a 100Mbps national broadband network, Exetel boss John Linton this week said a new report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) showed there was clear demand for mobility, but none for high-end speeds. “The average person needs a 100Mbps internet connection about as much as they need to have their arms amputated,” Linton told ZDNet.com.au . In a fiery blog posted yesterday, Linton said: “The NBN2 [national broadband network] was dreamed up by a total wanker (Krudd) who had and has less than zero knowledge about telecommunications, based on summary/key point ‘briefing papers’ done on the fly by pretty average civil servants.” The decision to throw taxpayer dollars at a high-speed fibre network had been made without any consideration of what people are willing to pay, nor what their priorities are, according to Linton, who said they want mobility and are content with speeds at 10 per cent of what’s being proposed under the NBN

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Exetel on ACMA: No demand for 100Mbps

in brief ower and Water, the Northern Territory’s electricity, water and sewerage provider, has awarded a $15 million ICT services contract to WA-based Oracle specialist SDS Group. Accepted on 18 December 2009, the contract serves for the ‘provision of applications support and enhancement services and server management services’ over a period of three years and is valued at $15,734,961

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Power and Water’s $15m ICT contract

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