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More Australian Insanity: Forwarding Mail Illegal (updated)

Posted by timothy on from the what-with-the-world-upside-down-n'-all dept.

lpontiac writes: "People have been making noise about the new Australian copyright laws making web caching and Playstation mod chips illegal ... and now, the Australian attorney-general has come out and stated that the new laws also make it illegal to forward email without the explicit (ie written) permission of the person who wrote the email. (Just as surprising to me is that the article claims to know who Claire Swire is :)" Update: 03/04 11:22 PM by T : kipling writes "Regarding the Australian e-mail copyright story, the ABC news site says that the Australian Attorney-General has dismissed these claims. Looks like another news ltd beatup." Update: 03/05 02:55 AM by T : And thanks to downunderrob, here is the AG's press release calling the idea "ridiculous."

8 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. What?? by number+one+duck · · Score: 5

    And in related news, showing (paper) birthday cards to your friends and family after you recieve them is ruled an offense, as well as telling anyone about an email you recieved, or reading your email in a public place, or... or....

  2. Security... by JiffyPop · · Score: 4

    Apparently the aussie government is os the opinion that the web will only be safe and secure for copyrighted works when it is completely useless.

  3. New commercial by brianvan · · Score: 5

    Guy sitting at computer... In the background you hear "You've Got Mail!"... close up of computer screen, at least 150 messages in his Inbox. He hits the forward button, selects all 50 people in his address book, and hits the send button. Immediately, a kangaroo with boxing gloves appears and knocks the living daylights out of the guy.

    Word appears at bottom: "SPAM"

    Foster's beer bottle shown: "BEEEAAAH!"

    "Foster's. Austrailian for BEEEAAAH!"

  4. Re:Oh gee by dattaway · · Score: 4

    Simply forward the offending attachment to abuse@isp, and the prosecutor's office will be contacting you shortly about *your* case.

  5. Oh gee by Fervent · · Score: 4

    I can't forward around that chain mail that my 12-18 year old brothers, sisters, and compatriots keep sending me. That sucks.

    --

    - I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.

  6. Email illegal in Auz by tbo · · Score: 5

    The ruling says that it's illegal to forward email because you're reproducing it without the author's express written permission.

    What about SMTP relay? Each SMTP server along the way reproduces a copy of your email. Since you don't always know which SMTP servers it's going through, how can you give them express permission? You can't. Thus, email is illegal in Australia.

    The obvious answer to this is that, when you send email, permission to copy it is implicitly given.

    1. Re:Email illegal in Auz by DeadMeat+(TM) · · Score: 5

      Not quite. The article states quite clearly that the reason why forwarding E-mail without permission is illegal is that it violates copyright laws. (In some countries, apparently including Australia, all original works are considered copyrighted, whether or not it is stated in the work. So you own the copywrite to all E-mail you write, since it is your original work.) By sending E-mail you are giving implicit consent for the SMTP servers to duplicate your message. (Now having somebody program the SMTP server and save logs of all the E-mail passing through it *would* be illegal, but I don't think anybody's going to be upset about that.) Everybody is blowing this out of proportion. It's no different than copyright laws before, it's just been clearly extended to E-mail. You aren't banned from forwarding mail; but if you knowingly forward something that the author didn't want forwarded, then you could be sued for copyright infringement, just if you Xeroxed a copyrighted work and snailmailed it. You just need to apply some common sense when forwarding things (consider whether or not the author would have wanted them forwarded) which is a good practice anyway, copyright laws or no.

  7. Forwarding is theft! by Dr.+Awktagon · · Score: 5

    Those people who write emails have worked HARD and they deserve to be compensated for their efforts!

    If you forward those emails you are a THIEF and a CRIMINAL, no different than if you went into a Border's and raped the cashier. How would you like if some gave away all your work for free? Communist!

    It's about time the government cracked down on those freeloaders. If you think forwarding emails should be free, well let's see you write your own emails and give them away! If every one forwarded emails, no one would write new emails because there'd be no incentive! How would you like that! Commie!

    Err, wait a minute, what was the discussion about again?