• Sydney Morning Herald , Wednesday, November 8, 2006 11:30 AM

Search giant Google, Inc. warned that Australia has introduced copyright legislation that could catapult the country back to the dot-com Stone Age. The Australian Government this week introduced legislation aimed at modernizing copyright laws governing new media, such as MP3 players, video and DVD recorders.

But Google claims the move, which essentially defers intellectual property obligations to Australia's Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., will have the opposite effect. It won't allow search engines to reproduce and store digital copies of books and other material as long as the reproduction was being used for research or private use. In other words, Google's ambitious plans to preempt copyright litigation by forging ahead in new territory like video digitizing library content won't have the safeguards needed under the new Australian law.

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