[ILUG] New austrailian copyright law

[John P . Looney]

 Checkout the "While incidental copies of material" paragraph. Seems
you'll have to pay to cache web pages!

Kate

----- Forwarded message from rms at gnu.org -----

http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/e-commerce/20010226/A25226-2001Feb26.html

Copyright extended to digital content 

JENNY SINCLAIR Monday, February
26, 2001

Digital content will be protected under Australian law for the first
time from Sunday as changes to the Copyright Act take effect. Until
now, digital information has not been specifically protected under
copyright law. The new law will give content creators wider powers
over the licensing of their work.

It will also ban trade in so-called decoding devices for unscrambling
digitally protected material. In a presentation to the Victorian
Society for Computers and Law last week, Carolyn Hough, the acting
principal legal officer in the intellectual property branch of the
Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department, said the changes were the
result of several years of consultation.

Hough said they had been designed as far as possible to be technology
neutral, so the rules would apply no matter what medium was being used
to transmit content. Rights holders will now have the right to decide
when their material should be made digital.

While incidental copies of material - such as the copies made by
Internet service providers during transmission of a Web page - were
exempt, deliberate copies such as those in a cache set up to minimise
international downloads were not, Hough said.

Libraries will have exemptions similar to the ones they already hold
for distributing information but they will not be able to build up
searchable collections, or provide material in competition with
commercial providers.

Under the new law, cable TV stations will not automatically be able to
retelecast shows from free-to-air television. They will have to
negotiate payment with "underlying rights holders" - the people who
actually made the program - first.

While making and importing decoding devices will be banned, their
personal use will not. Hough said the legislators had wanted to avoid
being heavy-handed.

Making and supplying software for cracking protective codes will also
be illegal but the law has been worded to avoid covering the computers
such software could run on.

The law will be up for review after three years.

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
 When I say 'free', I mean 'free': free from bond, of chain or command: 
to go where you will, even to Mordor, Saruman, if you desire. " 
    -- Gandalf, paraphrasing the choice between Free and Non-free software