Updates
Senate passes copyright reforms
The Attorney-General announced on Friday 1 December 2006, that Australian consumers are the major beneficiaries of the new copyright reforms. Copyright owners also benefit from these reforms as they can better protect their legitimate rights and copyright materials can be enjoyed in different ways.
The major reforms will:
- make it legal for people to record TV or radio programs and play them at another time in or outside the home
- legalise 'format shifting' of material such as music, newspapers and books, meaning people can put their CD collection onto iPods or MP3 players
- provide new exceptions allowing schools, universities, libraries and other cultural institutions to use copyright material for non-commercial purposes
- provide new exceptions for people with disability
- allow the use of copyright material for parody or satire as a fair dealing
- facilitate the availability of more films, music and software online with a more up to date technological protection measures regime
- provide new enforcement measures including on-the-spot fines and proceeds of crime remedies to tackle copyright piracy.