FURTHER ON CAL NEWS RELEASE


Subject: FURTHER ON CAL NEWS RELEASE
From: Tom Cochrane (t.cochrane@qut.edu.au)
Date: ke 09 kesä   1999 - 02:27:28 EEST


It was a pleasure to read the opinion of Mikael Book concerning the news
release issued recently by the Copyright Agency Limited in Australia.

The reason for the strong call by Oliver Freeman and others associated with
the publishing industry and rights collecting societies in Australia, is
that the Australian Government is about to present to Parliament a Bill for
reform of the copyright law in the light of developments in the digital
environment. This Bill is likely to support principles of fair dealing and
library exceptions, and as such has (wrongly of course) earned fierce
opposition from publisher interests.

The fact that a government in an OECD Country is interpreting the 1996
Geneva decisions in a way broadly supportive of balance in copyright
regimes, and with the perception of the needs of users, is an agreeable
outcome to organisations such as the Australian Libraries Copyright
Committee, the Australian Digital Alliance, the Australian
Vice-Chancellors' Committee, and others. However, the possibility of
entirely new forms of (great) wealth creation through the wholesale
abolition of the concept of fair dealing is an opinion being expressed
with increasing shrillness by those whose interests lie with such wealth
generation.

The passage of the Bill should be of great interest to international
colleagues with interests in the future of information access and provision.

TOM COCHRANE
Chair, Australian Libraries Copyright Committee, and
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Information & Academic Services)
Queensland University of Technology

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TOM COCHRANE
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Information and Academic Services)
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Box 2434
Brisbane Qld 4001
Australia

Phone: + 61 7 3864 2560
Fax: + 61 7 3864 1823
Mobile: 0414 63 2560
email: t.cochrane@qut.edu.au

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