# E-mail sharing banned by law in australia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 9, 2001, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-sharing-banned-by-law-in-australia/57345 "2001-03-09T14:26:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![curious\_george](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b487fb/32.png) [@curious\_george](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious_george)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-sharing-banned-by-law-in-australia/57345/1 "2001-03-09T14:26:26Z")
G’day! I got this by email. I tried to verify it at Snopes but didn’t find anything there. Is it true? If so, it sounds like a bad law to me. What do you think, mates? E-MAIL SHARING BANNED BY LAW IN AUSTRALIA Forwarding e-mail to friends, family or colleagues without permission from the sender is now illegal in Australia, thanks to a new law that took effect yesterday. Penalties for violation could be as much as five years’ jail time or fines of AU$60,000 (US$31,400). The motivation behind the law is copyright protection for the sender of the original e-mail. But in addition to material that already has copyright protection, such as excerpts from books or song lyrics, the new measure also affects personal messages. “It’s quite possible that the forwarding of an e-mail could be a technical infringement of copyright,” says a legal advisor for Australia’s attorney general. “E-mailing something is a ‘communication’ under the Digital Agenda Act and so is putting something up on a Web site.” This new interpretation means a simple e-mail about office gossip or holiday plans also carries personal copyright protection. It is estimated that 5 million or more e-mail messages are forwarded around Australia every day. (The Sunday Telegraph 4 Mar 2001) ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-sharing-banned-by-law-in-australia/57345/2 "2001-03-09T15:11:55Z")
It was [denied](http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-4mar2001-85.htm) by Daryl Williams (the A-G). > [@](#): > > for distribution of a personal e-mail to be classed as a breach of the new law, a court would have to find the contents were an original literary work. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-sharing-banned-by-law-in-australia/57345/3 "2001-03-09T15:26:37Z")
The original story: > **[Australia outlaws e-mail forwarding](https://www.theregister.com/2001/03/05/australia_outlaws_email_forwarding/)** > > Way over the top down under The follow-up story denying it: > **[Aussie AG denies e-mail penalty, sort of](https://www.theregister.com/2001/03/05/aussie_ag_denies_email_penalty/)** > > The old non-denial denial And the Australian Attorney General’s press release: [http://www.law.gov.au/aghome/agnews/2001newsag/931\_01.htm](http://www.law.gov.au/aghome/agnews/2001newsag/931_01.htm) A little research does wonders… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bungie\_us](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@bungie\_us](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bungie_us)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-sharing-banned-by-law-in-australia/57345/4 "2001-03-09T16:01:27Z")
Sometimes I wish ALL email forwarding WAS illegal, since begging and pleading my mother not to fill my inbox with an unrelenting deluge of of nonsense and tripe hasn’t worked. Please, Mom, please. . .If I get one more message that starts, “Only a person without a heart won’t forward this to at least 10 people. . .” ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-sharing-banned-by-law-in-australia/57345/5 "2001-03-09T16:12:21Z")
This site is as good as Snopes for listing common hoaxes and chain letters: [http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxCategories.html](http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxCategories.html) ---
**Author:** ![bungie\_us](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@bungie\_us](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bungie_us)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-sharing-banned-by-law-in-australia/57345/6 "2001-03-09T16:37:29Z")
Hoaxbusters is great. It’s my lunatic mom who won’t READ Hoaxbusters that’s the problem. She sweet and wonderful, and I love her, but giving her email is like putting a weasel in charge of a semi-truck. Digitally speaking. But this is WAY off topic.