The World Wide - Where?

When I began my search on the legality of online streaming, I did what any self-respecting Internet user would do: I hit up Google.

Unfortunately for me, all the top results were articles and videos detailing how to circumvent the current ban in Australia. This was not particularly helpful.

Stepen Quin and Stephen Lamble wrote of the dangers of relying on Google in their book, ‘Online Newsgathering’. There is so much content on the Internet that much of it will not be picked up by search engines. Rather, I had to turn to the ‘hidden web’ to find material that will point me in the right direction.

AustLii is a portal that allows access to a variety of decisions of State and Federal Courts in Australia. Using a Boolean search (copyright OR “intellectual property” AND internet) I found several cases that will assist the development of our feature.

While there is no case law regarding video streaming, I am working on the assumption that the same principles apply to audio media online. Particularly helpful to my research is Cooper v Universal Music Australia, a 2006 decision of the Federal Court of Australia. It discussed the operation of copyright, licensing and intellectual property rights in the Internet Age. These explanations were very useful, and this case has also given me the names of lawyers in this area of practice who may be available for interviews.

This is a very underdeveloped research area, evidenced by my initial Google search. Our feature will be a real and substantial clarification of a very complex issue. However, research is going to be trickier than I originally thought.

Have you ever experienced problems with Google? How do you find content that search engines don't readily provide? Let me know below!