The Copyright Act 1968 is federal legislation, and applies throughout Australia. Copyright protects:
Most countries now grant copyright of a work as soon as it is created. No special application is required. Copyright applies only to specific categories of material and does not protect ideas, information, styles or techniques. The length of the copyright varies according to the type of material. On 1 January 2005 the rules on how long copyright last will changed. Copyright will now generally last until 70 years after the death of the creator. This is similar to the period of copyright that applies in the United States and Europe.
Below are how copyright laws effect the internet.
The issues for broadband creators are similar to those facing other creators. The main copyright issues they need to consider are whether they need a copyright or moral rights clearance, what licensing arrangements they will need and how the broadband service provider will protect content against infringement. There is no copyright for a broadband product as a whole, it is the component of the product that are protected.
Copyright owners are exploring new ways of protecting their material against copying. Some examples of this are Electronic Rights Management Information (ERMI) and Digital Rights Management (DRM).
Like broadband content, whole websites are not protected by copyright, just the component parts are. Whenever a person is paid to create a website, the designer and client should make an agreement including who is responsible for clearing copyright in third party material, who is responsible for obtaining moral rights consents, who owns copyright of the components of the completed website and who has the right to make changes to the website. Websites should have a statement about copyright on the site. For futher protection some web sites require passwords or encrypt information to prevent unauthorised copying of material.
It is legal to download material from the Internet as long as you have permission. In most cases, permission to download material is given on the site itself. There are two types of permission express permission, when the statement is on the site and states that you may do certain things and implied permission, permissions that are not spelled out, but which is implied from all the circumstances.
In most cases it is the copyright owner who must take legal action if their copyright is infringed, and the person who does the infringing act is liable. A person who authorises an infringement by another person may also be liable. There are criminal penalties in the Copyright Act for serious infringements of copyright. Distributing infringing material from your site, or advertising the supply of infringing software are criminal offences.
For more information regarding Copyright in Australia Click Here to visit the Australian Copyright Council's website
Please click on the links below to view other pages of my assignment.
Ethical, and Legal issues of the internet.
Langford, Duncan. (2000). Internet Ethics. London, England: Macmillan Press Ltd
Baird: Julia. (2001). Copyright and the Internet. E-commerce: The Implications for the Law. Sydney, Australia: Lawbook Co.
Australian Copyright Council Online Information Centre 2003. Retrieved: 14 March 2004, from http://www.copyright.org.au
Clipart.com 2005. Retrieved: 17 March 2004, from http://www.clipart.com