Submission in response to the Productivity Commission's Intellectual Property Arrangements Inquiry draft report

Introducing a fair use exception, ending perpetual copyright for unpublished works, open access for publicly funded research and extending safe harbour are all worthwhile recommendations from the Productivity Commission.

The Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) made a submission to the Productivity Commission in response to their Intellectual Property Arrangements Inquiry draft report.

The ALCC is very supportive of the proposed recommendations set out in the Productivity Commission’s Intellectual Property Arrangements draft report. In particular, we support the Commission’s recommendations that:

• Australia should introduce an open ended fair use exception
• the copyright term for unpublished works should be aligned with that of published works
• Australian governments should adopt an open access policy for publicly funded research
• the safe harbour scheme currently afforded to carriage service providers under the Copyright Act should be expanded to all online service providers.

However, we make minor recommendations on the draft report, including to elevate comments on orphan works and libraries to the level of recommendations.