Specific exceptions

This Report also recommends retaining and reforming some existing specific exceptions, and introducing certain new specific exceptions. These are exceptions specially crafted for a particular type of use. Although they are less flexible and adaptive than fair use, they can serve a useful function if properly framed.

Specific exceptions are recommended for unlicensed uses for which there is a clear public interest, and for some uses that are highly likely to be fair use anyway, making a case-by-case assessment of fairness unnecessary. Preservation copying by libraries and archives is one example. The ALRC also recommends that specific exceptions for parliamentary libraries and judicial proceedings should be retained. New specific exceptions are recommended for use of copyright material in royal commissions and statutory inquiries, to allow public access to material when required by a statute, and to allow use of correspondence and other material sent to government.

The new exceptions are intended to promote good and transparent government. They will not have a significant impact on the market for material that is commercially available. If the use is essential to the functioning of the executive, the judiciary or the parliament, or to the principle of open government, it is likely that the use would be considered fair.