[Foundation-l] [Wikimediauk-l] [Fwd: Royal Society Digital Journal Archive]

[Ray Saintonge]

Andre Engels wrote:

>2006/9/27, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax at gmail.com>:
>  
>
>>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