Actually if something is 'in the public domain', it may be used by all and sundry. My brother manages some small regional newspapers and he often finds that the 'his stories', i.e. stories that his newspaper or journalists have unearthed, are often on the local regional TV stations. The newspaper receives no credit and there is nothing that he can do legally (and yes, this was confirmed by the newspapers' legal eagles), because the story is now 'in the public domain' Finally, would it not be easier to phone the relevant parliament (or if o/seas legislation, then its' representative in Oz) to clarify if you can use it rather than wasting everyone's time over it?? -----Original Message----- From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Petra Liverani Sent: Thursday, 13 November 2003 3:15 PM To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: atw: Re: Copyright - legislation Hi Peter, > While the legislation may be in the public domain, this does not mean > you can automatically use another person's or company's hard work in > gathering, collating, scanning, cleaning and overall creative ability, > without permission! I don't know what your definition of public domain is. I thought a work in the public domain meant that it could be freely used by anyone without asking permission - that doesn't mean it shouldn't be acknowledged - there's a difference between passing something off as your own or using it with acknowledgement. I could quote huge tracts of Henry James without paying a copyright fee but I wouldn't want to try to say I wrote them myself. In the case of leglisation, its source is the most significant aspect to it, so people are hardly not going to acknowledge it. Besides, who'd want to take credit for the writing of most legislation? Regards, Petra ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ************************************************** -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************