Copyright news - features news briefs and commentary on copyright issues
Copyright and the Digital Economy You are invited to provide a submission or comment on this Issues Paper The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has released an Issues Paper for the Copyright Inquiry, titled ‘Copyright and the Digital Economy’. The inquiry focuses on whether the current copyright exceptions and statutory licences are adequate to foster innovation and online participation in the digital economy. The ALRC, through the Issues Paper, seeks comment on a wide range of issues, including: time-shifting exceptions and private online use of copyright material; technical activities such as caching, back-up, data mining and cloud computing; fair use; transformative uses for copyright; the current statutory licensing schemes for educational institutions; and the special exceptions for libraries and archives. The Australian Digital Alliance (ADA) the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) and Universities Australia (UA) will be making comprehensive submissions in response to the Issues Paper, reflecting the concerns of library and university members. If you have questions, or suggestions which University of Sydney can consider as part of the review process, please direct these to email: The ALRC released an Issues Paper on 20 August 2012 and a Discussion Paper on 5 June 2013. Submissions in response to the Discussion Paper closed on 31 July 2013.
The ALRC reported on 30 November 2013. The Final Report was tabled in Parliament on 13 February 2014.
See the Attorney-General's Statement to the Senate on the tabling of the Final Report (PDF)
See the Attorney-General's Speech to the Australian Digital Alliance Copyright Forum, 14 Feb 2014 (PDF)
See University's submission to the Discussion Paper (PDF)
See University's submission to the Issues Paper (PDF)
Copyright - general information
Attorney-General’s Department Copyright website Provides a useful introduction to Australian copyright law with summaries of developments and issues, links to legislation and reports. The Department publishes an electronic newsletter on copyright developments called e-News on Copyright.
Australian Digital Alliance The ADA aims to achieve intellectual property laws that balance incentives for creators against reasonable access to knowledge by the community. The ADA publishes monthly Intellectual Property wrap-ups.
United States Copyright Office Provides information on copyright law in the US including copyright registration processes and changes in legislation. A range of information sheets are available.
Universities Australia Universities Australia represents Australian universities in the public interest, both nationally and internationally. A major area of responsibility of Universities Australia is the monitoring of government legislation and policies with implications for the ownership and use of copyright materials by staff and students in universities.
Considerations for licensors and licensees - this list sets out some basic things that you should think about before you apply a Creative Commons license to your material, or use Creative Commons-licensed material.
Choosing a Creative Commons Licence - a simple tool that gives everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work.
Oak Law Project This project based at Queensland Institute of Technology focuses on the legal issues associated with the management of copyright in an open access environment. The project has published a range of useful reports and guides which can be accessed via the website.
OakList Database Developed by the QUT based Open Access to Knowledge Law Project, this site provides information on publishers’ policies on open access and repositories. The site interacts with the Sherpa/Romeo database.
Open Educational Resources Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse, without charge. That means they have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license that state specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
Sherpa A useful site for information on the future of scholarly communication including the development of institutional repositories.
Sherpa/Romeo A detailed listing of publisher’s polices on copyright, self-archiving and institutional repositories.
SPARC The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition encourages the growth of new models of scholarly communication created by the networked digital environment.
Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) A collecting society that licenses the performing rights of its members: songwriter, composer and music publisher members. APRA licenses a range of venues for their use of live and recorded music.
Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) A national industry association that represents the interests of its members by providing a range of licences for the reproduction of sound recordings. ARIA promotes the Australian music industry and plays an active role in protecting its members' works against copyright infringement.
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) Represents authors, journalists, visual artists, surveyors, photographers and newspaper, magazine and book publishers. It is the recognized collecting society for the part VB Statutory Licence under the Copyright Act.