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05 Jul 2018
We strongly supports modernising our copyright system.
The Australian Libraries Copyright Commmittee (ALCC) made a submission to the Department of Communications and the Arts’s Copyright Modernisation Consultation.
The ALCC strongly supports the government’s stated goal to modernise Australia’s copyright system and ensure that it is efficient, effective, accountable and, most importantly, able to adapt to changes in economic conditions, technology, markets and costs of innovating.
To achieve this, the ALCC recommends that Australia:
- Adopt an open ended, flexible, fair use style exception, or extended fair dealing as a secondary, less desirable option;
- Protect all exceptions in the Copyright Act from being overridden by contract;
- Introduce exceptions that permit the use of orphan works by both cultural organisations and others, in commercial and non-commercial circumstances; and
- Modernise the libraries and archives exceptions relating to document delivery and interlibrary loan to simplify their language, reduce bureaucratic requirements, and harmonise user rights in relation to all categories of materials.
About the consultation
On Monday 19 March 2018 the Department of Communications and the Arts announced it was consulting on reform options of the Copyright Act 1968.
From the Department’s Copyright modernisation consultation web page:
2018 marks 50 years since the passage of the Copyright Act 1968. Uses of copyright content are changing with in the digital world. The Productivity Commission has suggested ways copyright can adapt to reflect changing interests.
We are consulting to:
- establish whether there is general support for any of the options for copyright reform proposed by the Productivity Commission in its report on Australia’s Intellectual Property Arrangements, which relate to three areas including:
- flexible exceptions
- access to orphan works
- contracting out of copyright exceptions
- understand your views as promised by the government in its response to the Productivity Commission report
- inform advice to the government to support copyright policy that reflects the interests of copyright creators, users and distributors.
As part of this consultation the Department released a Consultation Paper. Also relevant is the Productivity Commission’s Intellectual Property Arrangements final report and the Australian Government’s response to the Productivity Commissions IP Arrangements final report.
Submissions closed on Wednesday 4 July 2018.
Download our submission
You can download our submission as a Portable Document File (PDF).