Australian copyright law is based on the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and defines copyright in Australia. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (as amended), is the national copyright legislation, inclusive of additions contained in the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It does not cover all forms of intellectual property, for example, trademarks, patents and circuit layouts are covered by separate legislative Acts. However, designs may be covered by the Copyright Act (as sculptures or drawings) as well as by the Design Act. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, sometimes called the Berne Union or Berne Convention, adopted at Berne in 1986, first established the recognition of copyrights between sovereign nations. ... Copyright symbol. ... Australian Copyright Law is based on the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and defines copyright in Australia. ... The US-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a preferential trade agreement between the United States of America and Australia on the model of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). ... In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles in their expressed form. ... A trademark or trade mark[1] is a distinctive sign of some kind which is used by a business to uniquely identify itself and its products and services to consumers, and to distinguish the business and its products or services from those of other businesses. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and... The circuit diagram for a 4 bit TTL counter, a type of state machine A circuit diagram (also known as an electrical diagram or electronic schematic) is a pictorial representation of an electrical circuit. ...

Duration of copyright

Main article: Copyright expiration in Australia

Prior to the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement, Australia used a "plus 50" rule for determining when a work will enter the public domain. Put simply, a "work" (ie a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work) entered the public domain 50 years following the year of the creator's death, with exceptions. With the signing of the FTA in early 2005, copyright should now be understood as "plus 70", in line with the European Union and other regions. The extension to "plus 70" was not applied to Crown-owned copyrights. Copyright expiration in Australia is generally either 50 or 70 years after a work was created. ... The US-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a preferential trade agreement between the United States of America and Australia on the model of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Similar to the foreign reciprocity clause in the European Union copyright law, the "plus 70" rule is not retroactive. In short, this can be interpreted as:

• Any work that was published in the lifetime of the author who died in 1954 or earlier, is out of copyright.
• Any work that was published in the lifetime of the author who died after 1954, will be out of copyright seventy (70) years after the author's death.

Also any work that was published after the death of the author, will be out of copyright seventy (70) years after the year of first publication. Unpublished works hold copyright indefinitely.

Photographs, sound recordings, films, and anonymous/pseudonymous works are copyright for seventy (70) years from their first publication. Television and sound broadcasts are copyright for only fifty years after the year of their first broadcast (though the material contained in the broadcast may be separately copyrighted). Most other works are also dated from the first publication/broadcast/performance where this occurred after the author's death.

The period of seventy (70) years is counted from the end of the relevant calendar year.

The United States Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (1998) defines an entirely different rule based on the year of first publication in the US: generally, anything published before 1923 is public domain. An interesting consequence of this for the Internet is that a work may be public domain in the US but not in Australia, or vice versa. It is important to note that copyright does not depend on the country of origin of publication or of the author. A work published in the US by a British author may still be public domain in Australia if the author died more than seventy (70) years ago or died before 1955. The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Fair dealing

Fair dealing, comparable to the United States' fair use, is a use of a work specifically recognised as not being a copyright violation. However, unlike fair use, in order to be a fair dealing under Australian law a use must fall within one of range of specific purposes. These purposes vary by type of work, but the possibilities are: Fair dealing is a doctrine of limitations and exceptions to copyright which is found in many of the common law jurisdictions of the Commonwealth of Nations. ... Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. ...

• review or criticism
• research or study
• news-reporting
• lawyers' business

In order for a certain use to be a fair dealing, it must fall within one of these purposes and must also be 'fair'. What is fair will depend on all the circumstances, including the nature of the work, the nature of the use and the effect of the use on any commercial market for the work.

Fair dealing is not the same as fair use, a term which is generally used in relation to the US's open ended exception, which allows any use (regardless of purpose) as long as it is 'fair'. This has, for example, been interpreted by US courts to allow for reasonable personal use of works, e.g. media-shifting, which would not necessarily be permitted under Australia's fair dealing laws. Australian copyright law does, however, have a number of additional specific exceptions which permit uses which may fall outside of both fair dealing and fair use. For example, a number of exceptions exist which permit specific uses of computer software (see List of some possibly non-violating actions in Australia below). Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. ...

Moral rights

In 2000, moral rights were recognised in Australian copyright legislation. Only individuals may exercise moral rights. This article is about the year 2000. ... Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized in civil law jurisdictions and first recognized in France and Germany, before they were included in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1928. ...

List of moral rights in Australia

• Attribution
  • the right to be clearly and reasonably prominently identified as the author, in any reasonable form
  • the right to avoid false attribution, where the work as falsely presented as being another's work
• Integrity of authorship
  • the right to not have the work treated in a derogatory manner (this is a right to protect the honour and reputation of the author)

Automatic resale rights (royalty payments to the author on subsequent resales of the original and reproductions) are not covered by Australian legislation.

Ownership of copyright

Copyright is free and automatic upon creation of the work. A copyright notice (©) is not required on a work to gain copyright, but only the copyright owner is entitled to place a notice. It is useful in publishing the date of first publication and the owner.

Government-owned copyright

Main article: Crown Copyright

The Australian Commonwealth and State governments routinely own copyright in Australia. While this could be seen as being due to the concept of the Crown being traditionally paramount rather than the people, it is more influenced by the then British Commonwealth acting as a copyright policy-making body in the 1950s, which was the basis of the 1968 Copyright Act. Crown copyright is a form of copyright claim used by the governments of the United Kingdom and a number of other Commonwealth realms. ... The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as the Commonwealth, is an association of 53 independent sovereign states, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire. ... The 1950s were the decade that traditionally speaking, spanned the years 1950 through 1959. ...

The Australian government does not infringe copyright if its actions (or those of an authorised person) are for the government. A "relevant collecting society" may sample government copies and charge the government.

The State governments follow different practices in regard to licensing, fees and waivers. How to obtain a amature radio licence differs from country to country. ... A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege. ...

As of February 2004, the many aspects of Crown copyright were under formal review by the Australian Attorney-General's Copyright Law Review Committee, which was accepting submissions. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Attorney-General of Australia is the chief law officer of the Crown and a member of the Federal Cabinet. ...

Copyrights owned by the Crown in Australia have different durations to publicly held copyrights, as below:

Composite copyright

Material can contain multiple copyrights, that are not diminished by their combination or mingling. For example a television broadcast is copyright, as is the visual footage and soundtrack, as well as the screenplay, music and lyrics.

Copyright Tribunal

The Copyright Tribunal was established under the Copyright Act 1968, and has certain powers relating to royalties and licensing. It receives operational support from the Federal Court of Australia. In Melbourne, the Federal Court is housed with other federal courts such as the High Court and the Federal Magistrates Court in the Federal Court Building on the corner of La Trobe Street and William Street The Federal Court of Australia is the Australian court in which most civil disputes...

Timeline of Australian copyright law

• 1911 - Copyright Act
• 1959 - The British Commonwealth Attorney-General directed Commonwealth nations to enact particular policies
• 1966 - Dr David Malangi Daymirringu's mortuary rites story bark painting was used by the Reserve Bank of Australia on the one dollar note without his permission. Compensation and credit were later supplied.
• 1968 - Copyright Act (replaced the 1911 Act)
• 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 - various amendments
• 1984 Amendment, defined computer program in the Copyright Act
• 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 - various amendments
• 1989 - Copyright Amendment Act 1989 (repealed)
  • Levy introduced on blank tapes
• 1991, 1992 - various amendments
• 1992 - Autodesk Inc. v. Dyason (1992) 173 CLR 330 F.C. 92/001
  • The High Court of Australia supported that the reproduction of a lookup table in an EPROM in a third-party hardware lock was an infringement of a literary work.
• 1993 amendment
• 1993 - Australian Tape Manufacturers Association Ltd And Others v. The Commonwealth Of Australia (1993) 176 CLR 480 FC 93/004
  • The High Court struck down the 1989 levy as, essentially, badly located and unfair tax law and not a royalty.
• 1994 (3x) - various amendments
• 14 August 1997 - Telstra Corporation Limited v Australasian Performing Right Association Limited, 14 August 1997, FC 97/035, S 89/1996
  • The High Court of Australia found that music-on-hold transmitted by Telstra was a copyright infringement
• 1998 (3x), and 1999 (2x) - various amendments
• 2000 - Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act
• 2000 - Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act
• 2001 - Law and Justice Legislation Amendment (Application of Criminal Code) Act
• 26 July 2002 - Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment v Stevens [2002] FCA 906 (26 July 2002)
  • Federal Court decides that mod chips for Sony game consoles do not contravene copyright, due to representations from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as amicus curiae.
• 2003 - Copyright Amendment (Parallel Importation) Act
  • Made some provisions for parallel importing, affecting the 'grey market'.
• 2003 - Designs (Consequential Amendments) Act
• November, 2003 - Three Australian students received criminal convictions for copyright infringement, receiving a mix of suspended sentences, a fine, and community service.
• 7 February 2004 - KaZaA's Sharman Networks and Brilliant Digital Entertainment in Australia were raided for copyright violations using Anton Piller orders, along with the University of NSW, University of Queensland, Monash University, Telstra BigPond and three Sydney Internet service providers. The investigation was backed by Universal, EMI, BMG, Festival Mushroom Records, Sony and Warner Music.
• 8 February 2004 - Australia and the United States agree the text for a bilateral free trade agreement (AUSFTA). The copyright-related parts of the Intellectual Property Chapter were:
  • Longer duration of copyright
  • Agreed standards for: copyright protection, copyright infringement, remedies and penalties
  • WIPO Internet Treaties to be implemented by "entry into force" of the FTA
  • Fast-tracking copyright owners engagement with Internet Service Providers and subscribers to deal with allegedly infringing copyright material on the Internet
  • Tighter controls on circumventing technological protection of copyright material, with a possibility of public submissions
  • Tougher on unauthorised satellite Pay-TV signal decoding
• 9 February 2004 - Australia and the United States sign the FTA.
• August, 2004 - US FTA Implementation Act passes Senate, with amendments. References to documents and commentary.
• November 2004 - KaZaA case starts in Federal Court.
• December 2004 - Copyright Legislation Amendment Act passes, affecting parallel importing, temporary copies and Internet Service Providers' liability for taking down alleged infringing material.
• 1 January 2005 - The U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) officially comes into force.
• September 2005 - Federal Court of Australia finds Kazaa liable for copyright infringement and hands down judgment in favour of Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd.

David Malangi, (1927-1999) Aboriginal artist from the Northern Territory. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Reserve Bank of Australia in Martin Place, Sydney The Reserve Bank of Australia came into being on the 14th January 1960 to operate as Australias central bank and banknote issuing authority. ... The Australian dollar (currency code AUD) has been, since 1966, the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including the Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu. ... The terms computer program, software program, applications program, system software, or just program are used to refer to either an executable program by both lay people and computer programmers or the collection of source code from which an executable program is created (eg, compiled). ... High Court entrance The High Court of Australia is the final court of appeal in Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. ... In computer science, a lookup table is a data structure, usually an array or associative array, used to replace a runtime computation with a simpler lookup operation. ... EPROM. The small quartz window admits UV light during erasure. ... August 14 is the 226th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (227th in leap years), with 139 days remaining. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 14 is the 226th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (227th in leap years), with 139 days remaining. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... High Court entrance The High Court of Australia is the final court of appeal in Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. ... Telstra Corporation (ASX: TLS, NZX: TLS, NYSE: TLS) is an Australian telecommunications company under joint public/private ownership, holding a dominant position in landline telephone services, large share of mobile phone services, domestic consumer (including dial-up access and Broadband internet broadband cable modem, satellite and ADSL services under the... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Xenium Mod Chip soldered into a Xbox. ... The Nintendo GameCube is an example of a popular video game console. ... The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), formerly known as the Trade Practices Commission (TPC), is an independent Australian commonwealth government authority established in 1995 to protect consumer rights, business rights and obligations, perform industry regulation and price monitoring and prevent unauthorised anti-competitive behaviour. ... Amicus curiae (plural amici curiae) is a legal Latin phrase, literally translated as friend of the court, that refers to a person or entity that is not a party to a case that volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of the case to... The grey market (or gray market) refers to the flow of goods through distribution channels other than those authorized or intended by the manufacturer or producer. ... February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as KaZaA, but now usually left as Kazaa) is a controversial peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol. ... Sharman Networks is a company headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu. ... In British and British-derived legal systems, an Anton Piller order (frequently misspelt as Anton Pillar order) is a court order which provides for the right to search premises without prior warning. ... The University of New South Wales is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ... The University of Queensland (UQ) has its main campus in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, specifically in the suburb of St Lucia. ... Monash University Monash University is Australias largest university with over 55,000 students. ... Universal Music Group (UMG), formerly MCA Music Entertainment (see Music Corporation of America), is the largest major label in the record industry. ... The EMI Group is a major record label, based in Kensington in London, in the United Kingdom. ... BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group) is one of the six divisions of Bertelsmann. ... Mushroom Records is an Australian record company. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources. ... Warner Music Group is one of the Big Four record labels. ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... An internet service provider (abbr. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as KaZaA, but now usually left as Kazaa) is a controversial peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol. ... An internet service provider (abbr. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The US-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a preferential trade agreement between the United States of America and Australia on the model of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). ...

List of some possible copyright-infringing actions in Australia

• Home recording of broadcast radio/television content for private use whether for time-shifting or watching more than once.
• Home copying of legitimate recordings for private use whether for media-shifting or backup.
• Performing copyright material at a fund-raising school concert
• Playing a radio receiver or recorded music loudly in a public place
• Emailing documents from a government web-site that are available for public use
• Writing out a copy of a recipe verbatim

Time shifting is the recording of television shows to some storage medium to be viewed at a time more convenient to the consumer. ...

List of some possibly non-violating actions in Australia

• Incidental filming or television broadcasting of an artistic work
• Making a film, drawing, photograph, etc of a sculpture or other artistic work in a public place
• Performing copyright material by teachers or students for the purpose of the students' education
• Performing material, receiving a broadcast, or using a recording for residents and their guests in the premises where they live or sleep.
• Copying non-copy-protected legitimate software for any of these purposes:
  • Backup
  • Security-testing
  • Inter-operability
  • Correcting errors
• Buying an infringing copy of a video for private use (but you cannot possess it for a purpose that is detrimental to the copyright owner).

Proposed Changes

Recently Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has proposed that people will be able to record most television or radio program at home to watch at a later time with your family or friends but only once but the recorder has to be present. Philip Maxwell Ruddock (born March 12, 1943), Australian politician, is the Attorney-General of Australia in the Coalition Government of Australian Prime Minister John Howard. ...

He has also proposed that people are able to change the format of music for personal use in different audio hardware devices while mixing different whole songs on the one device/format as long as the music is a legitimate copy and it is permitted by the purchase agreement. The same will apply to books, newspapers, magazines, video tapes and photographs but not DVD's .[1]

References

• Australian Copyright Act 1968 as amended
• Chapter 17 of the Free Trade Agreement
• Australian Copyright Council Information Sheets
• Australian Attorney-General's Copyright Law Review Committee
• DFAT - AUSFTA Fact-sheet - Intellectual Property
• Australian Digitial Alliance - Monthly IP Wrap-Up - December 2002
• Federal Court of Australia
• National Gallery of Australia - Dr David Malangi Daymirringu
• Federal Court - Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment v Stevens FCA 906 (26 July 2002)
• High Court - Australian Tape Manufacturers Association Ltd And Others v. The Commonwealth Of Australia (1993) 176 CLR 480 FC 93/004
• High Court - Telstra Corporation Limited v Australasian Performing Right Association Limited, 14 August 1997, FC 97/035, S 89/1996
• High Court - Autodesk Inc. v. Dyason (1992) 173 CLR 330 F.C. 92/001