19.10.2012
Issue 4 | 19 October 2012 View original format.
Month in summary
The ALRC Copyright team, while awaiting submissions in response to the Issues Paper released on 20 August, has been continuing with research into the areas identified. During that time, there have been some developments on the copyright scene with two reports about copyright and the Australian economy being released: the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report, The Economic Contribution of Australia’s Copyright Industries (commissioned by the Australian Copyright Council) appeared on 15 August 2012, and the report by Lateral Economics which includes two parts: Excepting the Future and Exceptional Industries (commissioned by Australian Digital Alliance), on 10 September. On 7 September, the High Court refused leave to appeal by Optus to overturn the ban on its time-shifting product TV Now. This drew media attention to the ALRC Issues Paper, in particular the questions about time shifting and cloud computing. September also saw the ABC become ‘embroiled in copyright debate’ when it forced the removal of an application that enabled people to download programs offered on the iview service.
On 13 September, ALRC Senior Legal Officer Justine Clarke spoke at a public seminar presented by the Centre for Media and Communications Law, explaining the ALRC process and discussing some of the issues raised by the Issues Paper.
This month, Commissioner Jill McKeough will make a number of presentations covering aspects of the ALRC inquiry – to the Licensing Executives Society on 23 October, the Society of University Lawyers at their annual conference on 26 October, and the IP User’s Group of the Federal Court in Melbourne on 1 November. Last week, Commissioner McKeough sat on a panel “Openness – Copyright in the online age, moving towards a workable compromise after iiNet and Optus TV Now” at the Internet Governance Forum Australia in Canberra. The session was recorded and can be viewed online.
US copyright expert to visit Australia
On 13 November, in a public event hosted at Norton Rose, Professor Jill McKeough will introduce two distinguished experts on copyright for an evening of debate and discussion on the topic “Mirror, mirror on the wall…” Fair use or fair dealing in Australia? Norton Rose, UTS Faculty of Law and the ALRC are delighted that Professor Jane C. Ginsburg, Morton L Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property at Columbia Law School is visiting Australia and has agreed to speak on the evening about the US experience. Responding to Professor Ginsburg will be Professor Robert Burrell, Winthrop Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Western Australia. Both are published experts on fair dealing and fair use in copyright law. Registrations will be available via the UTS website.
Reminder
We’d like to remind everyone, the closing date for submissions to the Copyright and the Digital Economy Issues Paper – 16 November 2012 – is just 4 weeks away. We encourage use of the online submission form – to ensure the terms of reference are addressed, and to assist us in collating responses.
- Read or download the Issues Paper >>
- Make an online submission >>
Access the Issues Paper as an ebook
We will be publishing public submissions on the ALRC website in due course.