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Copyright law of Australia

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Zigger (talk | contribs) at 21:36, 16 February 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Australian copyright law is based on the Berne Convention and defines copyright in Australia. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (as amended) is the current national copyright legislation. It does not cover all forms of intellectual property, for example, trademarks, patents and circuit layouts are covered by separate legislative Acts. However, designs may be covered by the Copyright Act (as sculptures or drawings) as well as by the Design Act.

Australia uses a "plus 50" rule for determining when a work will enter the public domain. Put simply, a work enters the public domain 50 years following the year of the creator's death, with exceptions. For example, an author who died in 1950 entered the public domain in 2001. Photographs and anonymous/pseudonymous works are copyright for 50 years from their first publication. Most other works are also dated from the first publication/broadcast/performance where this occurred after the author's death. The period of 50 years is counted from the end of the relevant calendar year.

By contrast, the European Union has adopted a "plus 70" rule. United States copyright law defines an entirely different rule based on the year of first publication in the US: generally, anything published before 1923 is public domain. An interesting consequence of this for the Internet is that a work may be public domain in the US but not in Australia, or vice versa. It is important to note that copyright does not depend on the country of origin of publication or of the author. A work published in the US by a British author may still be public domain in Australia if the author died more than 50 years ago.

Fair dealing

Fair dealing is specifically recognised as not being a copyright violation. It is defined in terms of the type of work, the degree of copying, the purpose, the availability of commercial copies, and the commercial impact.

Acceptable purposes vary by type of work, but are:

  • review or criticism
  • research or study
  • news-reporting
  • lawyers' business

Fair use is not the same as fair dealing, and could allow reasonable personal use of works, e.g. media-shifting.

Moral rights

In 2000, moral rights were recognised in Australian copyright legislation. Only individuals may exercise moral rights.

List of moral rights in Australia

  • Attribution
    • the right to be clearly and reasonably prominently identified as the author, in any reasonable form
    • the right to avoid false attribution, where the work as falsely presented as being another's work
  • Integrity of authorship
    • the right to not have the work treated in a derogatory manner (this is a right to protect the honour and reputation of the author)

Automatic resale rights (royalty payments to the author on subsequent resales of the original and reproductions) are not covered by Australian legislation.

Copyright is free and automatic upon creation of the work. A copyright notice (©) is not required on a work to gain copyright, but only the copyright owner is entitled to place a notice. It is useful in publishing the date of first publication and the owner.

The Australian Commonwealth and State governments routinely own copyright in Australia. While this could be seen as being due to the concept of the Crown being traditionally paramount rather than the people, it is more influenced by the then British Commonwealth acting as a copyright policy-making body in the 1950s, which was the basis of the 1968 Copyright Act.

The Australian government does not infringe copyright if its actions (or those of an authorised person) are for the government. A "relevant collecting society" may sample government copies and charge the government.

The State governments follow different practices in regard to licensing, fees and waivers.

The many aspects of Crown copyright are currently under formal review by the Australian Attorney-General's Copyright Law Review Committee, currently in the stage of accepting submissions.

Material can contain multiple copyrights, that are not dimished by their combination or mingling. For example a television broadcast is copyright, as is the visual footage and soundtrack, as well as the screenplay, music and lyrics.

The Copyright Tribunal was established under the Copyright Act 1968, and has certain powers relating to royalties and licensing. It receives operational support from the Federal Court of Australia.

  • 1911 - Copyright Act
  • 1959 - The British Commonwealth Attorney-General directed Commonwealth nations to enact particular policies
  • 1966 - Dr David Malangi Daymirringu's mortuary rites story bark painting was used by the Reserve Bank of Australia on the one dollar note without his permission.
  • 1968 - Copyright Act (replaced the 1911 Act)
  • 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981 (3x), 1982 (3x), 1983 (4x), 1984 (2x), 1985 (2x), 1986 (2x), 1987, 1988 - various amendments
  • 1989 - Copyright Amendment Act 1989 (repealed)
    • Levy introduced on blank tapes
  • 1991 (2x), 1992 (2x), 1993, 1994 (3x), 1998 (3x), and 1999 (2x) - various amendments
  • 1993 - High Court of Australia strikes down 1989 amendment as unconstitutional in Australian Tape Manufacturers Association Ltd. v The Commonwealth
  • 2000 - Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act
  • 2000 - Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act
  • 2001 - Law and Justice Legislation Amendment (Application of Criminal Code) Act
  • 26 July, 2002 - Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment v Stevens [2002] FCA 906 (26 July 2002)
  • 2003 - Copyright Amendment (Parallel Importation) Act
    • Made some provisions for parallel importing, affecting the 'grey market'.
  • 2003 - Designs (Consequential Amendments) Act
  • November, 2003 - Three Australian students received criminal convictions for copyright infringement, receiving a mix of suspended sentences, a fine, and community service.
  • 7 February 2004 - KaZaA's Sharman Networks and Brilliant Digital Entertainment in Australia were raided for copyright violations using Anton Pilar orders, along with the University of NSW, University of Queensland, Monash University, Telstra BigPond and three Sydney Internet service providers. The investigation was backed by Universal, EMI, BMG, Festival Mushroom Records, Sony and Warner Music.
  • 8 February, 2004 - Australia and the United States agree the text for a bilateral free trade agreement (AUSFTA). The copyright-related parts of the Intellectual Property Chapter were:
    • Longer duration of copyright
    • Agreed standards for: copyright protection, copyright infringement, remedies and penalties
    • WIPO Internet Treaties to be implemented by "entry into force" of the FTA
    • Fast-tracking copyright owners engagement with Internet Service Providers and subscribers to deal with allegedly infringing copyright material on the Internet
    • Tighter controls on circumventing technological protection of copyright material, with a possibility of public submissions
    • Tougher on unauthorised satellite Pay-TV signal decoding
  • 9 February, 2004 - Australia and the United States sign the FTA.
  • Home recording of broadcast radio/television content for private use whether for time-shifting or watching more than once.
  • Home copying of legitmate recordings for private use whether for media-shifting or backup.
  • Performing copyright material at a fund-raising school concert
  • Playing a radio receiver or recorded music loudly in a public place
  • Redistributing pages or documents from a government web-site that are intended for public use.
  • Writing out a copy of a recipe verbatim

List of some possibly non-violating actions in Australia

  • Incidental filming or television broadcasting of an artistic work
  • Making a film, drawing, photograph, etc of a sculpture or other artistic work in a public place
  • Performing copyright material by teachers or students for the purpose of the students' education
  • Performing material, receiving a broadcast, or using a recording for residents and their guests in the premises where they live or sleep. (Party!)
  • Copying non-copy-protected legitimate software for any of these purposes:
    • Backup
    • Security-testing
    • Inter-operability
    • Correcting errors
  • Buying an infringing copy of a video for private use (but you cannot possess it for a purpose that is detrimental to the copyright owner).

References

Disclaimer: This article is intended as a simplification of the relevant legislation and its commentary, and is not intended as guidance.

Template:Inuse120 zig 20:50, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)

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