- I’m a student doing an assignment, can you help me/tell me…?
- I bought/tried to buy goods or services via a web site and now I have a problem/complaint about the seller. Can you help me?
- Can you give me legal advice about…?
- What type of material is illegal to view, access, download, possess in Australia?
- What type of material is illegal to publish/host online in Australia?
- Do defamation laws apply to information published on the Internet?
- What is EFA’s copyright policy: do I need permission to copy or quote information on EFA’s web site?
- May I link to information on EFA’s site from my own site?
- Are donations to EFA tax deductible?
- I’d like to volunteer to help EFA, what can I do to help?
- Does EFA publish a newsletter?
- I’m concerned about inappropriate advertising on a website, what should I do?
I’m a student doing an assignment, can you help me/tell me…?
EFA is a non-profit, primarily volunteer organisation funded by membership subscriptions and donations. Unfortunately, we rarely have sufficient human resources available to provide personalised responses to the many questions from the many students who email EFA.
Many students ask for information that is readily available on EFA’s site (which includes a search engine). EFA does not respond to such questions, nor to requests that sound as though the person is in effect asking EFA to write their assignment, or sections of it, in order to save the person having to research the assignment topic for themself.
If you have an inquiry that does not fall into the above categories, EFA may respond depending on time availability. You will be more likely to receive a response if you ask specific and clear questions and advise a date by which you need a response (and also if that date is at least a week into the future).
I bought/tried to buy goods or services via a web site and now I have a problem/complaint about the seller. Can you help me?
No. EFA does not provide a complaints handling or dispute resolution service.
We are aware that the web site at http://www.consumersonline.gov.au/ provides a search facility which claims to enable consumers to find details of organisations that offer such services, and presents EFA’s name in response to some searches. However, as the page on that site about EFA states: “EFA does not provide complaints handling or dispute resolution services”. EFA contacted the providers of that site in October 2005 and asked them to make changes so that it does not provide EFA’s contact details in response to a search for complaints handling organisations. However, as at 21 December 2005, that had not been done.
Can you give me legal advice about…?
EFA is a non-profit, primarily volunteer organisation principally involved in advocacy and educational activities concerning online freedoms and rights. EFA’s work and activities are funded by membership subscriptions and donations.
EFA is not a legal service or law firm and hence is not able to provide legal advice. However, EFA may provide information of an educational nature concerning laws affecting online users, publishers and content hosts and also may be able to assist in other ways relative to a particular case.
Persons intending to contact EFA seeking general information on laws are requested to firstly refer to the following three questions which provide answers to the enquiries most frequently directed to EFA.
What type of material is illegal to view, access, download, possess in Australia?
The answer to this type of question depends on which Australian State or Territory you live in and the current law in that jurisdiction. EFA does not necessarily have time to keep track of the law in the eight Australian State/Territories and, in any case, answering the question is not something that can be done quickly or easily. Information on how to find out about a specific State/Territory’s Internet censorship laws for yourself is available on the State/Territory laws section of the libertus.net web site.
What type of material is illegal to publish or host online in Australia?
Internet Service Providers and Internet Content Hosts:
Commonwealth Internet censorship legislation (the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999) applies to content hosted by Internet Service Providers and Internet Content Hosts. For information, see the Internet Censorship in Australia section of EFA’s site and the Australian Net Censorship Laws section of the libertus.net web site which includes answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Commonwealth law.
Content creators/providers and Internet users:
Censorship legislation applicable to content creators/providers and Internet users exists in some States and Territories and some other States may have proposed laws pending from time to time. For information, see the Internet Censorship in Australia section of EFA’s site and the State/Territory laws section of the libertus.net site which includes information on how to find out about a specific State/Territory’s Internet censorship laws.
Other laws:
Various States/Territories and the Commonwealth have laws of general application that are or may be applicable to making available/publishing information online (that is, in addition to laws specifically directed to “Internet censorship”). These include, but are not necessarily limited to, laws concerning “indecent or obscene” articles/publications, Crimes Acts/Criminal Codes, defamation laws, Fair Trading/Trade Practices Acts, Privacy Acts. These laws are beyond the scope of this section and are briefly mentioned here to avoid potential perceptions that no laws other than censorship/classification laws apply to content on the Internet.
Do defamation laws apply to information published on the Internet?
Yes. See EFA’s page: Defamation Laws & the Internet.
What is EFA’s copyright policy: do I need permission to copy or quote information on EFA’s web site?Content on the EFA web site is copyright Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. (except of course on pages/sections where a different entity or individual’s name is stated as the author or copyright holder).In relation to copying EFA documents:
- Copying for personal reference/use offline is permitted.
- Copying by educational institutions and teachers for educational purposes and/or distribution of copies to students is permitted provided no fee is charged to recipients of copies.
- Copying, duplication or re-publication for commercial purposes, or any other purpose not listed above, is prohibited unless prior permission is granted expressly by EFA.
In relation to quoting extracts from, or referring to, EFA documents in your own work:
- It is not necessary to request permission from EFA to quote extracts from, or refer to, EFA documents provided appropriate attribution is given to EFA in your own work (including the address/URL of the relevant EFA page).
See also below regarding linking to material on EFA’s site.
May I link to information on EFA’s site from my own site?
You do not need permission from EFA to link to any of EFA’s pages, provided that clicking on the link on your site does not result in the text/content on EFA’s page being framed/displayed on your site (e.g. under a banner heading) in a way that could give readers the impression the text/content is on your site rather than on EFA’s site.
If you are intending to link in a manner that results in text/content on EFA’s page being framed/displayed under a banner or beside a side bar on your site, you should advise EFA of this intention and ask for permission to link which may or may not be granted depending on the purpose and circumstances.
Are donations to EFA tax deductible?
No. EFA is not able to obtain tax deductible gift recipient (”DGR”) status due to the provisions of Australian tax law which, among other things, does not permit organisations whose principal activities include political lobbying to be granted DGR status. To qualify as a DGR, an organisation must fall within one of the specific DGR categories set out in tax law.
As it is generally known that one DGR category is “public benevolent institutions”, which includes some (not all) organisations with charitable purposes, some people assume that EFA would be able to obtain DGR status. However, that is not the case. In Australian tax law, the definition of “public benevolent institution” is narrow (as is the definition of “charitable purposes”). Briefly, “public benevolent institution” covers only non-profit institutions established to provide services directly to people needing relief from poverty, sickness, suffering, distress, misfortune, disability or helplessness. As stated on the ATO web site, it excludes “organisations for lobbying, advocacy, research and policy studies, and disseminating information” because such organisations lack the required direct benevolence, that is, although they may provide services of benefit to the general community they are not established to provide services to specific people in need.
I’d like to volunteer to help EFA, what can I do to help?
Please visit the volunteer section of the More Ways to Help EFA page for information about volunteering to help EFA.
Does EFA publish a newsletter?Not at present. The quarterly newsletter EFA issued in the past has not been published for some time due to lack of sufficient resources and higher priorities. We hope to be able to re-commence issuing newsletters at some point in the future. If you would like to volunteer to prepare EFA newsletters, please contact EFA with details of your relevant knowledge and skills.
In the meantime, other ways of keeping up-to-date with issues are:
- monitor EFA’s home page.
- subscribe to one or more of EFA’s public discussion or announcement mail lists.
- join EFA and receive information sent to the EFA members’ mail list. The members’ mail list is not a discussion list. It receives intermittent announcements, informational messages and action alerts from EFA. (The latter are also sent to the relevant EFA public discussion mail list.)
I’m concerned about inappropriate advertising on a web site, what should I do?
It is not uncommon for inappropriate advertising to appear on web sites. The obvious example is advertising for pornography or adult products appearing on sites aimed at children, but there are plenty of other ways products or services can be mismatched with news stories or other content.
This is most often not the direct fault either of the advertiser or of the site running the ads. With much, perhaps most, online advertising, advertisers and publishers work through intermediary networks which connect advertising campaigns with locations for advertisements.
If a web site you use has ads you think are inappropriate, however, it may still be useful — depending on the situation — to inform both the advertiser and the site manager. They may be able to control the “settings” on their advertising campaigns or sales.
In some cases you may be able to see which advertising network is involved and let them know directly about the problem. If the ad has a link “Ads by Google”, for example, that will take you to a page which has an option to “Send Google your thoughts on the site or the ads you just saw”.
If the web site is Australian and the content is “prohibited” or “potentially prohibited”, you can complain to ACMA about it.
There is also freely available software that allows you to block ads, either generally or from particular advertising networks. A popular
choice is the AdBlock Plus add-on for Firefox.
