Joint submission to the Traditional Rights and Freedoms Inquiry

Copyright is traditionally a civil matter. However, the scope of the property rights, protections and limitations are creatures of statute. The Australian Digital Alliance (ADA) and Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) submit that the Act currently inappropriately inhibits free speech, shifts the burden of proof in one criminal (and a number of civil) offence(s) and contains unjustified offences of strict liability. We propose:

• Removal of some of the existing copyright exceptions (as previously identified by the ALRC), to be replaced with a fair use exception to copyright infringement;
• Addition of exceptions to the technological protection measures (TPM) provisions to enhance free speech, including, in particular, the inclusion of a mechanism to ensure that people with a legitimate claim to fair use of material do not risk civil, and in particular, criminal liability for circumvention;
• Protection of copyright exceptions from contractual override;
• Reconsideration of the shift of burden of proof in offences; and
• Removal of the strict liability offences

Files

You can download the media statement as a Portable Document File (PDF) and Word Open XML Document (DOCX).