[LINK] sharing e-mail banned by law - 5 years jail or $60,000 fines

[Eric Scheid]

When will the madness end?

An article in today's Sunday Telegraph (March 4, 2001), is the following 
article, which I cannot find on their website :-(

Considering the IT + Policy aspects of the article, and the charter of 
the LINK list, I'm assuming that copying the text of the article below is 
within "fair use" ;-)

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Sharing email banned by law
By national political writer Simon Kearney

Forwarding an email to friends, family, or colleagues without permission 
from the sender is illegal from today and could result in severe 
penalties. New laws set out maximum penalties of five years' jail or 
fines of $60,000. The illegality stems from breaching the copyright held 
by the person who originally wrote the email. An estimated five million 
or more emails are forwarded each day around the nation.

Attorney-General Daryl Williams QC has warned Australians that they could 
be breaking the law if they continue to forward emails from today. "It's 
quite possible that the forwarding of an email could be a technical 
infringement of copyright," Mr Williams' legal adviser told The Sunday 
Telegraph. "Emailing something is a 'communication' under the Digital 
Agenda Act and so is putting something on a website."

The new measures cover material which already has copyright protection -- 
such as excerpts from books or song lyrics -- as well as personal 
messages. This means a simple message about office gossip, holiday plans 
or a new romance carries personal copyright and the recipient has no 
right to forward it without permission.

An email sex scandal erupted in Britain last year when London lawyer 
Bradley Chait forwarded a personal email from his girl friend, Clarie 
Swire, to six friends , who in turn forward the email to others. The 
email, which described his sexual prowess, eventually made its way around 
the world and let to the lawyer being severely disciplined by his 
employer.

Internet Industry Association executive director Peter Coroneos said 
forwarding email had probably always involved a technical breach of 
copyright, adding: "It's a matter of whether the authors themselves are 
likely to be concerned."

He urged people sending email to spell out whether they gave permission 
for the content to be forwarded to others.
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<snide>What's next from our Glorious Leaders ... laws against chewing 
with one's mouth open, elbows on the dinner table, and forgetting to 
floss?</snide>

It all seems a bit ridiculous, and one might think that the law would be 
pretty much ignored by one and all ... but then I have gloomy thoughts 
about a certain british academic suing all and sundry, and getting away 
with it. How many kooks will be trying on this caper?

e.

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eric@ironclad.net.au                 i r o n c l a d   n e t w o r k s
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