2006/9/27, Alphax (Wikipedia email)
<alphasigmax(a)gmail.com>om>:
5. I'm in Australia, downloading something
from the United Kingdom, and
uploading it to a server in the United States. Since there are
conflicting copyright laws at work here, which one applies?
In my opinion, both Australian and United States law apply. Australian
law restricts your right to upload the material to a public or
semi-public place, and US law restricts the right to spread them from
the server over the world. UK law could only restrict your
downloading, however it could still be of importance because the
original copyright of the material is in the United Kingdom, and
national copyright law sometimes refers to the laws of the country of
original publication to decide whether something is still under
copyright. That might even be mandatory in the Berne Convention, but
I'm not sure about that.
UK law would determine whether something is copyright in the first place
and how long that copyright would remain valid. Generally though one's
own domestic laws will not operate to protect a longer copyright than if
the work had been published where you live. The courts of a country
which still has a Berne convention life + 50 law will not protect works
during the extended period of the longer life + 70 period. Australia
recently went to life + 70, but did not do so retroactively.
Which country could prosecute mostly depends on where the offense took
place. The United States differs from many other places in that it
regards the offence as taking place where the server is located. Others
(including UK and Australia) consider the offence as taking place where
the material is downloaded. This could have the effect of your being
subject to the law of a country other than the three that were
mentioned. Nevertheless, some degree of practicality needs to apply.
The costs of prosecuting you in a foreign jurisdiction could be very
high; the prospects of a conviction would also be uncertain. When you
weigh that against the possible results of a conviction your offence
would need to be very serious before any foreign jurisdiction would go
after you.
Ec