Post #4 of our Top 10 of IP in 2020
In August 2020, the government announced some intended amendments to the Copyright Act, which follow the Productivity Commission’s report on Intellectual Property Arrangements, published in September 2016.
I posted about one of the proposed reforms, the limitation of liability scheme for use of orphan works, here. This scheme will have implications particularly for creators or editors who use materials created by others in their work.
Other proposals include a new fair dealing exception for non-commercial quotation of other copyright works, and some other exceptions intended to operate mainly for the benefit of the education sector / archives / libraries.
Draft legislation was foreshadowed by later in 2020, but hasn’t arrived yet. Presumably, this will now be released in the new year.
Left out of the reforms are updating Australia’s “fair dealing” exceptions to infringement to a “fair use” system, even though the Productivity Commission recommended that. The government took the view that more consultation is required, so proponents of US-style “fair use” will have to continue pressing their case. ☁︎
2020 has seen a very healthy amount of activity in intellectual property law in Australia. In no particular order, my Top 10 of 2020 series of posts contains my top ten things in IP from the year, and what they might mean for 2021.
