Re: Copyright of laws (was: Copyright over the Internet)

 Terry Carroll writes:
>
>> I doubt it. Most other countries' Acts are protected by copyright!
>
>However, it is up to each nation to determine if such works are
>copyrighted, even if they originate in another nation. In the U.S., for
>example, the view is that no law is copyrighted, whether it's a lowly
>municipal regulation, or a statute of another nation. This is regardless
>of whether the statute enjoys copyright protection in its native country.

 I cannot understand how my country and many others can hold to the  doctrine that ignorance of the law is no excuse and yet prohibit free  distribution of that law but there it is (at least one State of  Australia (NSW) has forfeited its copyright in statutes and case law  and hopefully others will follow).

 But then again, the US effectively grants copyright in the citation  system for much of its case law so that is only marginally better.

>Thus, it isn't too far-fetched that someone in the U.S. may have a server
>of other nations' laws. Now, using that server from within a nation that
>_does_ permit copyright of laws may well be an infringement, but that's a
>different question.

 As far as I know nobody has done this for UK or Australian law yet.  Would somebody be willing to do this for UK and Australian law as I  know both are available electronically on CD and some libraries in the  US might potentially have these CDs?

Tim Arnold-Moore      | CITRI, RMIT         | Uni. of Melbourne Law School
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