[LINK] Emails can infringe copyright, ruling

[Kim Holburn]

On 2007/Feb/16, at 8:36 AM, Adam Todd wrote:
> At 04:37 PM 16/02/2007, Brendan Scott wrote:
>> > Emails can infringe copyright, ruling Think twice before hitting
>> > forward
>> >
>> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/15/ 
>> email_copyright_infringement/
>> >
>> >
>> > Business letters can be protected by copyright and forwarding  
>> them to
>> > others can be an infringement, the High Court has ruled. The  
>> decision
>> > could have implications for email communication because the same
>> > principles will apply.
>>
>> Well, this would have to fall into the "blindingly obvious" box -  
>> despite some dissembling some years ago.
>
> Oh wow!
>
> That means next time my father prints a copy of a LINK email I've  
> posted and presents it in court I can slap him with a Copyright  
> infringement because he didn't get a copyright licence from me to  
> print it!

First of all if you publish it on a public mailing list with publicly  
available archives I don't think this would apply.  Second of all I  
don't think copy would apply to court evidence.

> Do I need a sig for Link:
>
> Copyright (C) 2007 all rights reserved by the author. No  
> reproduction by any person is permitted without payment of a  
> copyright licence fee.

That case is in Britain, not Australia so I doubt it would apply and  
as the judge said it's the amount of original thought that went into  
the text, I don't think a sig would make any difference to your emails.

Kim

--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961