Copyright and the Digital Economy Report Delivered
Wednesday 11 December 2013 @ 11.00 a.m. | IP & Media | Legal Research | Trade & Commerce
The final Report into copyright laws by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) entitled Copyright and the Digital Economy (see ALRC Report 122) was completed and presented to the new Attorney-General by the end of November 2013 as required by the Terms of Reference that established the inquiry. The report was the result of 18 months of work which saw the ALRC produce two consultation documents; an Issues Paper and a Discussion Paper as well as running an online discussion forum which conducted 109 consultations.
In all the inquiry received over 860 submissions according to the ALRC's own website. Speaking as recently as 6 December 2013 in response to a question in "Senate Question Time" the new Attorney General responded to a question about the delivery of the report by saying that:
"The ALRC inquiry is the most significant review of the Copyright Act since the act came into operation in 1968, and has attracted strong interest with over 850 submissions."
Background
To recap the report results from Terms of Reference provided to the ALRC by the previous Government on 29 June 2012 in which the ALRC was asked to consider: "whether exceptions and statutory licences in the Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) are adequate and appropriate in the digital environment and whether further exceptions should be recommended".
The then Attorney-General appointed Professor Jill McKeough (on temporary leave from her position as Dean of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney) as Commissioner in charge of the inquiry.
In broad terms the inquiry examined whether exceptions and statutory licences in the Act were adequate and appropriate in the digital environment and whether further exceptions to copyright should be recommended and among other matters the ALRC considered whether further exemptions should recognise a fair-use exception in relation to copyrighted material.
Recommendations
The ALRC has made a number of recommendations as a result of the inquiry, some of which were listed by the Attorney General as follows:
- the introduction of a flexible fair-use exception as a defence to copyright infringement.
- retaining and reforming some of the existing specific exemptions and introducing certain new specific exemptions;
- amending the act to clarify the statutory licensing scheme;
- limiting the remedies available for copyright infringement to encourage the use of orphaned works;
- reforming broadcasting exemptions and amending the Act to limit contracting-out terms.
What's next
In his speech to the Senate the new Attorney-General has indicated that: "the government will be responding to the ALRC Report in the new year".
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