Volume 10 Issue 1

Copyright Beyond the Digital Frontier – Australia’s Proposed Digital Agenda Reforms

GAYE MIDDLETON*

Recently, there has been a global effort at both national and international levels to develop copyright law to meet the challenges posed by digital technologies. The most significant international developments have been the adoption of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty at the World Intellectual Property Organisation Diplomatic Conference on Certain Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Questions. These treaties aim, among other things, to address uncertainties in copyright law as it applies to digital technologies, while maintaining “a balance between the rights of authors and the larger public interest”. Recognising the need to develop Australian copyright law to meet the challenges posed by digital technologies, the Australian Federal government introduced the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Bill 1999. The central aim of the Bill is “to ensure that copyright law continues to promote creative endeavour whilst allowing reasonable access to copyright material on the Internet and through new communications technology”. This paper discusses how the Bill seeks to achieve this central aim, and compares the provisions of the Bill with corresponding provisions in the WIPO treaties, the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the proposed Directive on the Harmonisation of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society issued by the European Commission.