The NSW Minerals Council (NSWMC) has backed away from threatened legal action against Rising Tide Newcastle. The website www.miningnsw.com.au, created by members of Rising Tide Newcastle, received international attention last month when the NSW Minerals Council had the site pulled down under Australian Copyright law. The website parodies a current Minerals Councils spin campaign involving billboards, newspaper and television ads, and the website www.nswmining.com.au and highlights the impacts of the NSW coal industry. On Friday 16th March, the Minerals Council failed to follow through with threats to sue Rising Tide for alleged breach of Copyright, instead sending a careful drafted letter requesting changes be made to the site [see the chronological background below].
Rising Tide yesterday sent a letter in response, rejecting allegations that the parody website breaches the NSW Fair Trading Act and Commonwealth copyright law, and declining to make the requested changes. “We do not believe that our website is in breach of any law, and we have informed the Minerals Council of that today,” said Steve Phillips, from Rising Tide. “The NSW Minerals Council has attempted to stifle legitimate dissent on an issue of growing public importance, but appears now to have backed down and accepted our right to protest the disgraceful impacts of the NSW coal mining industry.” “Coal mining has irreversible impacts on local and regional environments and communities in NSW, and is far-and-away our state’s biggest contribution to climate change.”
Background information
On February 19th this year, the NSW Minerals Council (NSWMC) launched a state-wide public relations campaign with the slogan “Life: Brought to you by mining.” The campaign includes billboards, television, and newspaper advertisements, which direct people to the website www.nswmining.com.au. Shortly after the launch of the NSWMC website, members of Rising Tide Newcastle (RTN) set up a satirical and critical website at www.miningnsw.com.au. This website was a satirical imitation of the NSWMC website, with the same images but rewritten commentary, describing the negative social and environmental effects of the coal mining industry. The hosts of the RTN website were contacted by NSWMC lawyers within 24 hours of the launch of the site. The NSWMC lawyers abused a clause of the Commonwealth Copyright Regulations to force the website hosts to remove the site. While the site was most probably legal under the Copyright Act’s Fair Dealing clause as a parody, the hosts were legally required to remove the site pending a response to the Minerals Council’s claim of copyright infringement, which did not specify the articles of alleged copyright.
The RTN members then completely re-made the site, with original layout and images that were either original or used with permission, in order to remove all possibility of copyright infringement. The NSWMC lawyers nevertheless contacted the new website hosts within 24 hours, with a similar claim letter, and again had the site removed under Regulation 20J of the Copyright Regulations. While RTN maintains that the site did not contravene any copyright laws, the host was again legally obliged to remove the site.
RTN submitted a counter-notice on Sunday 5th March, rejecting the allegations of the NSWMC. The NSWMC then had 10 working days in which to take the matter further with court action before the site could be relaunched under Australian Law. In the meantime, RTN relaunched the website with an overseas host, who were not subject to Australian copyright law. International copyright law does not have the same automatic take-down clause of Australian copyright law. The 10-working-day period was to expire at 5pm on Friday 16th March. At 4pm on Friday 16th March, NSWMC emailed a letter to the two RTN activists responsible for the site, Steve Phillips and Ned Haughton. The letter alleges that the site breaches both the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and the NSW Fair Trading Act 1987, reserves the right of the NSWMC to take the matter to court, and requests fundamental changes to the content and layout of the site. Yesterday, the two RTN activists have replied to the NSWMC letter, rejecting the allegations and refusing to make the requested changes to the site.