Examples of third party uses

7.5 Many organisations, businesses and technologies facilitate uses of copyright material. To varying degrees, computers, home recording devices, many software programs and popular apps—the internet itself—all facilitate copying.

7.6 Some businesses sell machines, computers, or software programs that enable their customers to make copies in their homes; other businesses make, store and communicate the copies more directly. Some services help people copy material they already own; others copy and collect material the consumer may only be free to access, such as so-called ‘free’ web and broadcast content, and books in libraries.

7.7 The spectrum of these activities is wide. At one end may be pure storage services. Many companies offer cloud storage facilities, that allows customers to store and access their own digital files, including copyright material, on remote servers.[1] A number of stakeholders submitted that merely providing a digital storage facility, such as a cloud locker, should not infringe copyright.[2]

7.8 Other services on this spectrum may include:

  • educational institutions copying material for students;

  • a photocopying company copying material for students;

  • remotely scanning a customer’s computer, copying the files and storing them for the customer’s personal use, including for backup;

  • taking a customer’s collection of music CDs and making digital copies for the customer to use;

  • scanning hardcopies of a customer’s books, and giving the customer electronic versions;

  • a web application that allows users to copy and collect web pages and other digital content, perhaps stripping the content of advertisements and images to make the text easier to read; and

  • a web application for managing research resources that allows users to store copies of web pages, journal articles and other copyright material in the cloud.

7.9 These are all existing services, some with millions of customers around the world, that arguably involve a third party using copyright material for a customer, in a way that the customer may be permitted to use themselves. Many more examples could be provided.