Our copyright law is a wondrous complex beast, and even apparently simple tweaks carry the potential for significant unintended consequences, writes Kimberlee Weatherall, an associate professor in Sydney University’s Faculty of Law.
Sport
AFL 
Your guide to why AFL fantasy football is so damn popular
Why does the average fantasy football fan spend more time on their phones checking scores than they do calling their mums? This online hobby has become an obsession to many fans. So what makes it so addictive, asks Leigh Josey?
European football’s rise of the collectivist spirit
In European football, big budgets and big spending are normally equated to success, but this season various smaller clubs are making the most of what they’ve got, and they’re proud of it.
Demetriou: in sports-mad Melbourne, few can rival the AFL boss for influence
Perched at the top of the biggest game in Australia’s most sports mad city, the chief of the AFL is always going to demand fealty, writes Andrew Crook.
Rainbow flags rule out love match with Margaret Court
If you support Australian values such as equality, fairness and mateship, whether you’re straight, gay or anything else, take along a little rainbow flag and wave it for the cameras, writes Doug Pollard, a broadcaster and journalist in Melbourne.
Cricket Australia’s perfect pull shot
James Sutherland and Mike McKenna, chief executive and head of marketing respectively at Cricket Australia, are completely transforming the sport’s demographics and revenues – almost entirely through marketing, writes Alan Kohler.
The politics of cricket: forget a reshuffle, it’s time to bring out the axe
It’s fitting that on the day Gillard announced a cabinet reshuffle, a devastating loss to New Zealand in the Second Test at Hobart may be the catalyst for the axe to be applied to the Australian cricket team, writes Leigh Josey.
Why the spin stops here in Australia
With the Australian summer of cricket now in full swing, and with New Zealand at battle with Australia — and India on their way — Cricinfo’s S. Rajesh crunches the numbers of recent spinners in Australia. They don’t paint a pretty picture.
Roebuck’s death: a good man, a bad man or something in between?
Peter Roebuck has died leaving more question marks than the most enthusiastic YouTube commenter, and given the closed nature of South African policing, straight answers may never be forthcoming, writes freelancer Geoff Lemon.
Anyone for cricket? Apparently not sponsors for the Big Bash
The majority — if not all — of the Big Bash League teams have been unable to secure sponsors for Cricket Australia’s hyped Twenty20 competition beginning next month, writes Crikey intern Alexander Cornwell.
Why does anyone give a damn about the Melbourne Cup?
Of all the things that Melburnians waste money on and are disproportionately obsessed about, the Melbourne Cup is the worst. It’s proof white trash is a state of mind and has nothing to do with how much money you have, says Thomas Caldwell.
Lloyd Williams, $840m on, still driven by the lure of the Cup
This is the week that Lloyd Williams waits for all year. While Williams’ $840 million fortune might be built on property development and a canny investment strategy, it is the challenge of winning a Melbourne Cup that drives Williams these days.
The billionaire businessman and soccer saviour
Frank Lowy is widely seen as the man who fixed the mess that was Australian soccer. Yet his power could be on the wane, particularly if increasing calls to oust him come to fruition, explains Tom Cowie in his profile of Lowy.
The Baillieu Dump: Racing Victoria looks at new ways of charging jockeys
Victoria’s Racing Integrity Commissioner, Sal Perna, has taken the extraordinary step of naming a controversial jockey and detailing investigations about him in the organisation’s annual report, writes Aneeka Simonis, a Swinburne University student.
The man who gets sport on the telly
if you look at any major sports and TV deal in the last decade-and-a-half, you’ll find sports right agent Ian Frykberg’s fingerprints on it. Tom Cowie profiles the former Murdoch and Packer man.
Your one-stop All Blacks Rugby World Cup victory thread
Well done New Zealand. Winning the Rugby World Cup is clearly the nation’s greatest achievement since it through the ring into the fires of Mordor, writes Leigh Josey.
Kicking goals as sport’s most powerful: number 10
By night Labor apparatchik Mark Arbib counts numbers. But by day he’s paid to help decide which sporting bodies get what cash, how much punters can bet and what high-performance drugs are illegal, writes Tom Cowie.
World Cup: If NZ wins this thing, there’ll be a bunch of kids named Piri
Can the All Blacks finally shake off their tag as World Cup chokers? Is the infighting in the French camp a strategic ruse of Napoleonic brilliance? Does anyone have a funnier name than Piri Weepu? Geoff Lemon asks the big questions
Gee, long way from home, but greatness warms the heart
A writers festival on the New South Wales central coast is probably the closest you can come to watching the AFL grand final in a vacuum, writes blogger Geoff Lemon.
Transparency please! Why the tax breaks for pokies clubs?
Has there ever been a more self-serving public campaign than the one being mounted by Clubs Australia? It’s time for a closer look at the alleged benefits of clubs to the Australian community.
News Ltd, Clubs and NRL v imaginary AFL anti-pokies campaign
The pokies debate has exploded over the past 24 hours after Clubs NSW used its influence over the NRL to try and impose its campaign against Andrew Wilkie’s reform agenda on the AFL’s grand final week program.
Footy codes not on level playing field in pokies fight
How bizarre that the Australian football codes are arguing that the money they take from problem gamblers is essential to their plans to pay enormous salaries to players and administrators, writes Dr Richard Denniss, executive director of The Australia Institute.
Footy codes join forces in pokies war
Crikey media wrap: The two dominant footy codes usually war with each other for dominance but they’ve put aside their differences to protest against Independent MP Andrew Wilkie’s pokies reform.
Roger that: it’s a grand slam win for all
Like most live sporting events, grand slam tennis is shaped to a large degree by the character of the crowd. Writing from the US Open, tennis buff Julie Zhou reports on the joy of watching her third “Roger (Federer) slam.”
Why jumps racing keeps hitting hurdle after hurdle
When horses die, members of the team are sometimes physically sick. Most often they just cry, writes Bill King, a Melbourne writer and public health researcher.
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Tips and rumours
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Say goodbye to coal power stations
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Arts life after money: has the Australia Council ‘lost the plot’?
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Rio Tinto, BHP results cloud mining tax bottom line
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Nostalgianomics and the ongoing rewriting of economic history
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Today’s First Dog on the Moon
TOP STORIES
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All roads lead to Queensland
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Moving to one person rule
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Will constitutional recognition advance Australia fair?
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Power Shots: Murdoch chairs Ten … rich Kiwi eyes Tassie … gallery finds head …
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How the ‘resource curse’ eats at the heart of Bougainville
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Scottish independence: Salmond still swimming upstream
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Guilty confessions of an Australian republican
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Mills at Leveson … Textor’s tawdry tweet …
Crikey Says
POLITICS, THE UNIVERSE, ETC
MEDIA/ARTS/SPORT
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My Kitchen Rules rules
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Arts editor shits on theatre blogging, flame war ensues
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Latest circulation figures: read all about it … or not
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Euro progress boosts markets
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Statistics and damn lies: online job ads
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Maley: prepare for a US house price washout
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Play the ball instead of the woman or man
