I'm not in the USA and I don't wish ANY of my posts to be copied randomly on any threads or posts by people without my knowledge and my permission.

INTERNET COPYRIGHT LAW

Copyright law in Australia is administered by the Copyright Law Branch of the Information and Human Rights Division of the of the Attorney-General's Department.Copyright law is set out in the Copyright Act 1968. The law also includes court decisions which have been made since that date which show how the Act can be interpreted and applied in different situations. An organization called the Australian Copyright Council offers information and training which helps to clarify the many different forms of copyright.

In 2001, the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000 was passed and this amendment sets out copyright protection regarding material found on the internet. As well as the general Australian Copyright Act 1968 and the more recent amendments made specifically for the internet, there is also a treaty called the Berne Convention which involves over 100 countries from around the world. This treaty allows Australian copyright owners to be protected in most other countries in the world. It also allows protection for authors from other countries to be covered by copyright law in Australia. In 2004, some changes were also made to the Copyright Act with the implementation of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA).

The laws which relate to copyright in Australia are very complex and cover all areas of intellectual property including the internet. Copyright is a type of intellectual property and the law gives exclusive legal right to the individual, or anyone assigned or employed by them, to protect the expression of their ideas including how that information can be copied and also whether or not that material can be distributed to the public. Copyright laws also outline what information can be copied for personal use and what can or can not be distributed to the public.

All work which is original and created from ideas which have not been copied from other people’s work is automatically covered by copyright law as soon as it has been recorded in some way. In Australia there is no actual copyright registration system and copyright is free and automatic, however, rights can vary depending on the type of work. Ideas can be expressed in many different forms. These include written material such as newspaper articles, emails, computer programmes, song lyrics, poems, e-books and website text on the internet. It also includes dramatic works, musical works, films, compilations and directories, sound recordings, videos and computer programmes. Rights can vary for different types of work. One example is that copyrights for musical and literary works are different from the rights for artistic works.

Copyright laws do not protect us from other people making work that is similar and calling it their own. We can also read other people’s work and translate or modify that work into our own words by following certain guidelines. In this situation it is very important to show correct referencing. This will make it absolutely clear that the work of another person has been accessed or read and that our work may contain similar ideas but it cannot be the same. This can deter people from copying or using that property as their own. In order to prove legal ownership in some countries overseas it is actually necessary to show that a notice of copyright has been attached to a work. When we want to protect our expressed ideas in the various forms available on the internet it is important to use a copyright notice stating our name and the date that the work was made and specific guidelines outlining what can and can not be done with our work.

It is important to remember though, that there is a certain amount of copying which is considered to be fair under copyright legislation. However, copying of a substantial part of material can break copyright laws. Substantial doesn’t necessarily mean a large amount of the material referring to size. Substantial in this context can also mean an important part of that work, something that makes that work distinctive from other works, or something that is essential to that work

The actual amount of information which can be copied does vary. Most sites will show guidelines regarding copyright stating how much information, or which part of their information can be downloaded, re-posted, forwarded, or printed and exactly what a user can or can not do with that information. When a copyright notice is posted on information on the internet this is called express permission. This type of permission also applies if the user contacts the copyright owner or the webmaster of a site and is given permission to use their material as long as they follow the specified guidelines for reproduction.

If a website does not have a notice regarding copyright a user should contact the owner of the website and ask permission before copying or using any of their material or before linking to their website. Some websites will show information which does not belong to the webmaster of that site, so then it is the responsibility of the user to check with the actual owner of the work posted on that website to check what rights apply to their work.

When a user makes a website or posts their own intellectual property or ideas on the internet there are several ways to make sure that their work can be protected from other people using that work as their own. The most important way to do this on our own websites is to display a copyright notice stating very clearly what can and what can not be done with our work. In some situations it is also possible to use digital watermarking and digital rights management software to protect our work.

Implied permission doesn’t set out copyright quite as clearly. Many news sites on the internet, for example, will show icons which allow us to show print-friendly versions of the site, or icons which allow us to email to others. This implies that the information can be shared without clearly stating that fact in an attached copyright notice.

The public domain comprises information which is not covered by copyright and which is freely available to the public. This can happen when a copyright expires when a certain period of time has lapsed after the death of the author of the work or it can mean that the work was never covered by copyright law and has been distributed on the internet for public use or modification. A large amount of software has been designed specifically for the public to download at no cost and without copyright. It is usually stated on the download site that the software is in the public domain. Once again it is our responsibility as a user to check for any notices which imply that the software is public domain and we should not assume that because there is no notice that we are free to copy, download or modify material. Some software available on the internet might not be legitimate

One area of the internet that has been gaining a lot of attention recently is the downloading of music files or MP3 files. File sharing allows people to make files available to others on a network. Some internet websites where music files are shared across a network have suggested that downloading their files is legal. This is not always true and we should be aware that we cannot download another person’s intellectual property without their permission. Many major record companies are now offering downloads from their own websites. Some of these are free and some of them are not. Once again it is our responsibility as the user to check if we are breaking the law before we download files through P2P software.

Copyright law is very complex and especially so in the area of the internet. It is most important for everyone who uses the internet to have knowledge of basic copyright law because this can ensure that we can legally safeguard our own expressed ideas as well as the ideas expressed by others.


Lara.
© Copyright 9th August, 2007

http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/agdHome...25704C001A561E
Copyright Law Branch - Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department

http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/pdfs/f...ets/ausfta.pdf
Australian Government - Australia – United States Free Trade Agreement
Examining The Impact on Intellectual Property
IP Australia, January 2005

http://www.copyright.org.au/
Australian Copyright Council - Online Information Centre

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/c...act/ca1968133/
Commonwealth Consolidated Acts - COPYRIGHT ACT 1968

http://john.curtin.edu.au/society/glossary/
Archives & recordkeeping glossary
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, Australia

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../glossary.mspx
Glossary of Networking Terms for Visio IT Professionals