Forwarding e-mail within Australia...


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Subject: Forwarding e-mail within Australia...
Name: Nick
Date: 3/6/2001 3:00:47 AM (GMT-7)
IP Address: 61.9.208.141
Message:

Contrary to alarmist media reports, sharing e-mail is not banned by law.

Amendments to the Copyright Act that came into effect today do not outlaw the practice of forwarding personal e-mails to other people. That would be ridiculous.

The Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act updates copyright law to ensure it provides the same protections in an electronic environment as exist in a hard copy environment. For example, musicians whose music is distributed online without their permission will be able to take action to stop it, in the same way they can if pirate CDs are sold over the counter.

Forwarding a personal e-mail is unlikely to breach copyright laws. A court would need to find that the contents of the e-mail were an "original literary work". For example, if the e-mail was simply a joke that everyone had been re-hashing for years, it is doubtful it would have the necessary originality to be protected by copyright. Similarly, a casual exchange of personal information or office gossip would probably not be original enough to have copyright in it.

The Digital Agenda Act brings copyright law into the electronic age. It is an important reform that will further protect the rights of musicians, artists, writers, film makers and other creators of original works. It will also continue to allow users, especially libraries and educational institutions, reasonable access to copyright material through new communications technologies. It will not impose hefty penalties on everyday users of personal e-mail.

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http://www.law.gov.au/aghome/agnews/2001newsag/931_01.htm


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