Copyright and Postings to E-Lists

[Dan Tebbutt]

Glen Turner wrote:

>Finally, a rant.  The current Copyright Act is far too
>technology specific.  So the only way of determining if a
>new medium is subject to what provisions of the Act is to
>have the lawyers put it to the courts and establish a
>precedent.  This is not cheap, the results are not available
>to Joe Public, and the outcome is not clear beforehand.


I agree -- but it's arguably a symptom of a regime that protects the bottle
not the wine, as copyright antagonist John Perry Barlow puts it.

Australia has been speaking about a less technology-specific regime for
years but there has been little concrete progress. See
http://apcmag.com/apcarch/24de_1e2.htm for an overview (two years old but
little has changed) and find other features from August 1996 at
http://www.apcmag.com/features/

Dan