"There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses -- he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray."

From "The Man From Snowy River" by Banjo A.B. Paterson.

My fellow Australians, you may not be aware of it, but a grand theft is going on under our noses. The Public Domain, our culture, is being stolen from us.

"The Man from Snowy River" is Australian folklore, a bold story of mountain men and their horses. A story to be passed through generations, to fire children's enthusiasm for literature.

"The Man from Snowy River" is in the Public Domain[1]. You are free to share it with your friends and family. You may read it to others, print out copies so others can read it, use it as inspiration for new poems or put it on your webpage. You don't need permission to do these things. You have freedom.

Under the Free Trade Agreement, it will be illegal to do these things[2]. It will be illegal to copy "The Man From Snowy River" for your friends, or to send it to them via email. Reading the poem to a room of people could land you in court. Your freedom will be lost. You will be required to pay a toll. Your culture will be diminished.

"The Man from Snowy River" is only an example. The copyright clauses of the Free Trade Agreement extend far, to music, poetry, paintings, books, and almost any human record. Works will be removed from libraries and the Internet. Your ready access to significant parts of Australia's, indeed the world's, body of knowledge will be stolen from you.

It is not too late to stop the theft. Please write to your Member of Parliament, opposing copyright extensions. Do it now, before the horse has bolted. Tell your Member of Parliament that you will not stand for the theft of "The Man From Snowy River".

Footnotes

[1] The author, Banjo Paterson, passed away in 1941. Under copyright law, the poem entered the public domain in 1991, fifty years after the author died.

[2] A condition of the FTA is that Australian copyrights be extended to seventy years after the author dies. The "Man from Snowy River" will be removed from the public domain until 2011. Later if copyright is extended again.

Written by John Dalton. Version 1.1.0, 5/3/2004
Copyright 2004 by John Dalton
This is a draft. Once the text has been finalised I will loosen up the distribution conditions.
To be part of this grassroots campaign against copyright extension, please visit http://john.daltons.info/copyright/ on the Internet.