Copyright In Australia Essay

Copyright is the set of significant exclusive rights that have been conferred on the authors of works or copyright owners. It is used to protect their work from unauthorised transmission or copying and to the protection of their moral rights. These moral rights include the right of integrity of authorship, the right against false attribution of authorship and the right of attribution of authorship.

Throughout Australia, copyright is established under the ‘Commonwealth Legislation’, the ‘Copyright Act 1968’. This is updated periodically for the purpose of taking into account, the changes in technology, where International Treaties can also apply. Regulations that specify matter related to the operation of the Copyright Act are the ‘Copyright

One of the most prominent legal issues in copyright law pertains to ‘fair use’. Fair use can be exemplified as a person who stores copyrighted music files on their personal laptop in folders accessible by the public, which are liable for infringing upon the copyright owner’s exclusive right to distribute. Another case exemplified is when a software developer could be vicariously liable for copyright infringement when it distributes technology in which individuals have the option to share copyrighted and non-copyrighted material. In both of these cases, the courts are demanded to “ascertain the limits of statutory language through judicial interpretation and interpolation.” (Jessica D. Litman, Copyright, Compromise, and Legislative History, 72 CORNELL L. REV. 857, 858

The four central factors that contribute to law lag occurs when the law of copyright responds to the new technology. Firstly, the creation of rules takes time and the complex lawmaking process involves various procedural safeguards. Secondly, the unpredictable and dynamic nature of the technological innovations becomes difficult to predict or anticipate future inventions therefore it is difficult to reduce delay by writing laws to anticipate coming trends. This statement complicates any efforts to reduce law lag, acting proactively. Third, is the unpredictability of the necessitates regarding the deployment of open standards in copyright law. Finally, the indistinctness as to the potential economic and social implications of novel technology is the fourth contributing factor to law lag in copyright. To visualise the uncertainty, Figure 1 displays an overview of ten major innovative breakthroughs that gave significant rise to the copyright issues. It can be analysed that the average time that it takes to ascertain an innovation’s copyright status is predicted as seven years and two months. A contributing reason for lags in the Australian copyright law is heavily influenced by underlying technology. By awaiting developments in the law, the legal system loses the opportunity to intervene and reduce socially desired effects. Therefore, early intervention might affect the