Australian copyright law overview
What it applies to
Copyright is a form of intellectual property recognised under the Berne Convention and embodied in Australia in the Copyright Act 1968.
The Act applies to certain materials, including works:
- literary works;
- dramatic works;
- musical works; and
- artistic works;
and other subject matter such as:
- films;
- sound recordings;
- broadcasts; and
- published editions (i.e. the actual layout).
A video is regarded as a film. A computer program or electronic database is treated as a literary work.
The copyright in each type of work or other subject-matter has independent existence. For example, copyright may subsist independently in a literary work, a film based on the work and a broadcast of the film. Three different copyright owners may own these three different kinds of copyright. Similarly, for a compact disc, there may be a separate copyright in the lyrics, the composition and arrangement of the music and the sound recording of the work. Any dealings in such material must recognise all relevant layers of copyright. In case of doubt it is advisable to obtain legal advice.
It is important to understand that copyright protects the skill and labour involved in a particular expression of ideas in a physical medium, not the information or ideas as such. In this respect it is dissimilar to the law relating to confidential information.
A list or directory, including an electronic compilation of information, may contain very little choice as to its expression, i.e. it may be reducible to bare "information" which is essentially able to be expressed only in one way. In such a case copyright confers only a thin layer of protection.
No level of literary or artistic merit is required for copyright to subsist in a work. However single words, slogans or titles are not sufficiently substantial to be protected as works. They may be protected by other legal means, e.g. as a trademark or under the Trade Practices Act.
Rights of copyright ownership
The copyright conferred by the Copyright Act is a bundle of exclusive rights in relation to the work or material in question. They include the rights:
- to copy or reproduce the work;
- to make an adaptation of it;
- to publish it;
- to perform it in public; and
- to broadcast it to the public.
In some cases the copyright owner also enjoys an exclusive right to transmit the work by cable to subscribers, or to commercially rent copies of the material. Note that the delivery of a training course may constitute a performance for the purposes of the Act.
Copyright is a form of property. However it relates to an abstraction - the work or material in question; and should be distinguished from ownership of the physical medium in which the material is expressed.
It is an infringement of copyright to do any of the above acts without the permission of the copyright owner. An infringement need not involve the whole of a work in question; it is an infringement to take a substantial part of the work.
Who owns copyright
In general the copyright owner is the author or maker of the relevant material. However a work created in the context of employment is owned by the employer. A work created by a contractor is owned by the contractor. However it is possible to vary these provisions by agreement.
The Copyright Act does not require the completion of formalities (such as publication, registration or the payment of fees) in order to obtain protection in Australia, or any other country which is also a party to an international copyright treaty. (This is unlike the position with patents, trade marks and designs where registration is a pre-condition to protection.) Copyright protection is granted automatically from the time an original work is made in a material form.
Like other forms of property, copyright can be assigned to a new owner, or use of the copyright material licensed - either exclusively or non-exclusively. Assignments and licences may be qualified by reference to time, territory and other factors.
Additional rights
Under the Act, performers have the right to prevent the unauthorised recording, broadcasting or cable transmission, of their performances. Performers may also prevent certain dealings in unauthorised recordings of their performances, such as broadcasting, cable transmission, copying, sale, hire, distribution, importation, possession and use of an authorised sound recording on the sound track of a film (synchronisation right). These rights are unassignable; they do not currently amount to a form of copyright. The law is currently subject to review.
In addition to the exclusive rights referred to above (sometimes called economic rights), the Copyright Act also provides creators with certain non-economic rights (moral rights). The creator of a work is entitled to be acknowledged as such and to object to derogatory treatment of the work. There are also provisions relating to false attribution of authorship.
Exceptions
The Act provides certain defences and exceptions to copyright infringement. These include a number of so called statutory licences, under which copyright acts which would otherwise be infringing are permitted, usually subject to payment of some remuneration.
