Book battle engages Telstra

WITH a further sell-off of Tesltra blocked in the Senate, industry punters believe the Government will sell off the Telstra wholly-owned subsidiary Pacific Access.

This company produces the Yellow and White Pages in print and on the Internet and is now 100 per cent owned by Telstra.

However a small marketing company is proving a legal and market thorn in their side.

The Melbourne-based DtMS has been selling Australian directories on CD-ROM since 1993.

They produce Marketing Pro, Phonedisc, CD Phone Directory, and Intraphone, a new intranet telephone directory for multi-users in larger companies.

Telstra argues that by publishing the information DtMS was violating copyright and took DtMS to the Supreme Court 18 months ago disputing their right to publish the information.

A decision has still to be handed down and it could be some months before this happens.

This would preclude floating Pacific Access on the stock market until the dispute is resolved.

“In the US and Canada copyright of directory information is not an issue, why should it be here,” said defiant DtMS Managing Director Andre Scibor-Kaminski.

“Despite the difference in size of our companies we have been legitimate competitors since 1993. Suddenly it becomes a copyright issue rather than who’s the better developer and marketer of directory information.”