FreePint publishes new report:
Copyright - How to Stay Legal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FreePint has published a practical new report on copyright with the emphasis on staying legal.

"Copyright - How to Stay Legal" by Paul Pedley (FreePint, ISBN 1-904769-07-1 is available to purchase electronically from the FreePint Web site at:

<http://www.freepint.com/shop/report/>

The report's author, Paul Pedley, of the Economist Intelligence Unit and KeepingLegal <http://www.KeepingLegal.com/> says:

"Most people are not interested in copyright for its own sake ... they simply want to be able to copy material with the confidence that they are doing so lawfully. Reading this report will help you to be copyright compliant and to minimize risk."

The report shows information professionals, in particular, how to categorise levels of risk and stay within the law. New examples from case law show the practical consequences of non-compliance and provide an excellent insight into the law.

Annabel Colley, Editor of FreePint and who commissioned the report, says:

"Paul Pedley has written a number of very popular legal reports for FreePint in the past and the short publication cycle of electronic publication and distribution means that you can ensure you are completely up-to-date on current copyright law".

The report covers areas such as copyright compliance, why there is so much legal uncertainty, how copying can be authorised through statute, permission, licence or contract, what constitutes copyright infringement, and the consequences. It also covers organisational policies, and keeping within the terms of licence agreements.

The Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 introduced a number of new offences in the area of new technology and electronic rights management information. To cite just one example from the report, Legg Mason had a subscription to Lowry's Market Trend Analysis for which they paid USD700 a year. This entitled one person to use the newsletter. However, they were routinely posting the PDF of the newsletter on the company's Intranet, which was accessible to more than 1,300 employees globally. The federal district court in Maryland found Legg Mason liable to Lowry's for breach of contract and wilful copyright infringement, and they were required to pay USD19,725,270 in damages and lost subscription fees.