Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

ALRC to review Copyright Act

Inquiry will determine if the Act’s exceptions need to be changed for the digital age

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has decided to conduct a review into the use of copyright in a digital setting.

The inquiry will consider whether the exceptions in the Federal Copyright Act 1968, which was amended in 2006, are adequate and appropriate in the digital environment.

These exceptions include fair dealing and private copying when time-shifting or for special purposes.

The review follows Optus’ court case win against Telstra. Optus was accused of infringing the Act by screening live sports games on its TV Now mobile service, but it was determined that the service did not infringe copyright because a person is allowed to make a copy of a broadcast to view it at a more convenient time solely for their personal use.

Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, said that it was important to ensure copyright laws are keeping pace with change. “The Gillard Government is determined to get the balance right between providing incentives for creators and innovators and encouraging new opportunities within a digital economy including via the National Broadband Network [NBN],” she said in a statement.

University of Technology Sydney dean of law, Professor Jill McKeough, has been appointed to lead the review.

Draft terms of reference for the review are expected to be released by the end of March this year.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Attorney-General, etwork, Optus, Technology, Telstra, University of Technology Sydney
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), copyright, national broadband network
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Key Considerations in Modernising Your Backup and Deduplication Solutions
    There is a definite need for better data backup solutions in today’s enterprise data centers. The question is whether to continue with software-only backup and deduplication solutions, or to make the move to a purpose-built backup appliance with deduplication capabilities. This paper provides a structured approach to assessing the advantages of the appliance model. Read this whitepaper.
    Learn more »
  • Oracle Database 11g for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
    Oracle Database 11g is a comprehensive database platform for data warehousing and business intelligence that combines industry-leading scalability and performance, deeply integrated analytics, and embedded integration and data-quality -- all in a single platform running on a reliable, low-cost grid infrastructure. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • IDC Forecast: Worldwide Purpose - Built Backup Appliance 2011 – 2015, Forecast Update: Explosive Growth in 2011
    This IDC Forecast Update provides share positions for revenue and raw capacity for nine named PBBA vendors for the first half of 2011. In addition, this study provides the market size and a five-year forecast for the worldwide PBBA market as part of IDC's Storage Solutions coverage. The five-year forecast includes total factory revenue and raw capacity in terabytes through 2012. The worldwide PBBA market covers both open system-and mainframe-attached products.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.