Association of Consulting Surveyors NSW Inc.
Level 10, 99 Bathurst Street, Sydney 2000
PO Box A1155, Sydney South, 1235
Tel:		(02) 9267 9728
Fax:		(02) 9267 9226
Email:	admin@acsnsw.com.au
www.acsnsw.com.au

ABN 67 174 505 197

Re:	Submissions to ALRC Inquiry – Copyright and the Digital Economy

Dear Ms McKeough,
It has just come to our attention that due to a clerical error in the office, ACS NSW submission to the above Issues paper was not submitted by the due date of 16 November 2012.
ACS NSW would however like to endorse the submission made by ACS Victoria.  Similar to ACS Victoria, ACS NSW represents the private sector of the land surveying profession in NSW.  Our member firms are leaders in an industry that is broad-based, multi-disciplinary and technologically advanced.
ACS NSW currently has just over two hundred member firms spread across NSW and these firms stay at the forefront of industry, planning and legislative updates primarily thanks to their membership, quarterly newsletter, seminars and training courses run by ACS NSW.
The Association takes pride in its ongoing working relationships with industry, government departments such as Land & Property Information in the NSW Department of Finance and Commerce and infrastructure bodies dealing with the provision of land services.  It sees its role to advise member firms to develop, maintain and provide an efficient service for the benefit of the community.
In addition ACS NSW has joined with ACS Victoria to form Consulting Surveyors National (CSN) in an effort to ensure that there is a national voice for issues on a broader scale that impact on the land surveying profession.  An example of such an issue was the recent Senate Inquiry into the skills shortages being experienced in engineering and related professions.
ALRC Issues Paper
ACS NSW fully supports the ACSV response to Q.34 of the Issues Paper on the inquiry into Copyright and the digital economy. 
The NSW Association supports the current regime in s.183 of the Act and strongly opposes any free exception that would allow government agencies to make copyright material, registered in accordance with statutory obligations under Commonwealth or State law, outside the terms of s.183 of the Copyright Act 1968.
ACS NSW concurs with ACSV which is strongly of the view that the current regime within s.183 of the Copyright Act 1968 is equitable and even more relevant in the digital economy where the potential commercial uses made of deposited material have increased dramatically and the ease of distribution has done likewise.
The Association would be very keen to participate in any additional discussion of these issues.  Please contact me on (02) 9267 9728 for any further information that the ALRC may require.
 
Your sincerely

Paul Rowlandson
Chairman, ACS NSW
10 December 2012