News release from CAL


Subject: News release from CAL
From: Barbara Schleihagen (Eblida@nblc.nl)
Date: ke 02 kesä   1999 - 09:33:26 EEST


News release below from Copyright Agency Limited Australia forwarded for
your information.
Regards, Barbara Schleihagen

Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 14:48:08 +1000
>From: "Charles Maddison" <cmaddison@copyright.com.au>
To: "blue.newsletter@thorpe.com.au" <blue.newsletter@thorpe.com.au>,
Susan Wyndham <swyndham@smh.fairfax.com.au>,
Lorien Kaye <lorien.kaye@thorpe.com.au>, Smarts <jmillar@world.net>,
Brook Turner <bturner@mail.fairfax.com.au>,
John Mutter <j.mutter@cahners.com>
Subject: News release from CAL
Content-Length: 11991

2 June 1999

NEWS RELEASE

Online readers face payments revolution, says publisher

Delegates to the seventh annual Australian Book Fair tomorrow will be
told by an electronic publisher that digital technology allows
publishers to receive “payment for the use of our works, not just
payments to own them”.

In a paper to be presented at a seminar on International Directions in
Copyright, Mr Oliver Freeman, Managing Director of Prospect Media and
Director of Business Affairs with eBooks.com, says: “Digital copying
offers the promise of millions of remunerable and recordable
transactions because of the nature of the technology that supports it.

“This changes dramatically the way publishers begin to look at their
publications, because now we have the opportunity for receiving payment
for the use of our works and not just payments to own them

The way people can consume works of intellectual property has been
radically transformed thanks to digital technology. Digital transactions
are all recordable and remunerable.

“Anything which can take an electronic charge (like a chapter of text
which has been created or captured digitally) can communicate vital
information about the transactions of which it is part: where it is, who
the user is, whether it is being copied and so on.

“Similarly, anything which can take an electronic charge can take a
fiscal charge, so that these transactions can be remunerable at the time
of use rather than before or afterwards. This is what eCommerce is
about,” he says.

Discussing the legal infrastructure used to protect intellectual
property published online, Mr Freeman says: “In my view, copyright in
the digital world is effectively a transactional rather than an inherent
property right. I am not denying the rights of ownership, but looking at
how the digital world changes the way it is exercised.

“From that perspective, it has less to do with what I own than with what
remuneration I am entitled to. And creators who believe they can deny
transactions as a matter of right are in for a rude awakening.”

While speaking on Proposed Changes to Australia’s Copyright Laws, Mr Ian
McDonald, a Legal Officer with the Australian Copyright Council, will
highlight some problems he perceives with the Federal Government’s
Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Bill 1999.

Under the draft Digital Agenda Bill, Mr McDonald says, an individual for
their own research or study could:

* Visit protected online sites of publications such as The Sydney
Morning Herald, and use a circumvention device to download for free
what they might otherwise have to pay for;

* scan the material from a hard copy; or

* approach a library to do either of these things.

Additionally, he says, a corporate library could build digital copies of
articles, either from hard copy or from protected sites, again without
having to pay for the articles and again by using circumvention devices
to nullify any technological protection devices.

“Basically, the library copying provisions, as drafted, are flawed
because the thinking behind the Bill has failed to take into account a
number of fundamental points,” he says. Mr McDonald will also tell
delegates:

* It is wrong to think that material in digital form and material in
hardcopy form will be consumed in the same way by the public.

* It is wrong to think that digital material will be distributed in
the same way as hard-copy material.

* It is wrong to think that the lack of accessibility which has
shaped the current, hard-copy, library exceptions will continue to
apply in a digital environment.

* It is wrong to think that libraries will play the same role in
relation to the collection and dissemination of digital material as
they play in relation to hard-copy items such as books.

The Chief Executive Officer of Copyright Agency Limited, Mr Michael
Fraser, will call for a comprehensive public education campaign on
copyright in the digital age.

In his paper, The Digital World of the Future, Mr Fraser says:
“Electronic copyright management systems will allow authors to publish
high quality, valuable books and journals online.

“However, people should be more prepared to recognise and reward the
work, talent and financial investment that goes into producing original
works of the mind.

“Authors and publishers support the concept of transactional charging
when their intellectual property is substantially copied online. Most
other goods and services are paid for by way of transactional charges.

“Consumers also need to be assured that any data gathered about their
use of online publications will not be used to infringe their privacy,”
Mr Fraser says.

Seminar details:

International Directions in Copyright
A free seminar presented by Copyright Agency Limited

9.30am -- Noon
Thursday, 3 June 1999

Auditorium Meeting Room 4
Sydney Convention Centre
Darling Harbour, Sydney

To register, please email cmaddison@copyright.com.au

Media contact:

Charles Maddison
Copyright Agency Limited

Phone: 02 - 9394 7684
0417 - 652 613



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