Copyright Law of Australia Creative and Artistic Works

Question: Discuss about the Copyright Law of Australia for Creative and Artistic Works . Answer: Copyright Law of Australia The rights of creative and artistic works which are enforced by law come under the copyright law of Australia. The framework is defined in the Australian Copyright Act, 1968 and its protection in Australia is statutory completely. Copyright is considered as a complex legal area when it comes to the material it follows (Davison et al, 2008). Copyright is often called as intellectual property as this term is used to concentrate that it is something which do not depend on anything for the ownership of the artistic work. It can be explained with an example. If a sculptor is selling a piece to someone it is not necessary that the sculptor is selling its copyright also. If he wants to sell its copyright, he needs to enter into a separate agreement with another party. If the sculptor is not selling his copyright, he can reproduce the same work in spite of the fact that the original work is owned by someone else. This can be done because the copyright owner enjoys the benefit of right to reproduce by the Copyright Act (Australian Copyright Council Report, 2012). The copyright owner of an artistic work enjoys the following benefits: Publishing the work Including the work on a television broadcast Reproduction of the work in physical form Can transmit the television programme which includes its work to another service cable (Copyright Org AU Report, 2015). The complexity in its application is because the present Copyright Act came into force on May 1, 1969, which brought many changes to the law. The Copyright Act can be implemented without any complexity by following some simple principles (Copyright Agency Australia Report, 2012). The copyright laws should be such that it should balance the interests of public interests promoting innovation and interests of private rights holders. The copyright laws of Australia should be such that it should reflect national interests and should avoid reflecting interests of other countries where the interests conflict. The interests of indigenous people need special protection. With these laws, Australia should make contribution to the public rights shared globally. The copyright protection should have limited duration to be achieved and should not be extended (Australian Copyright Council Report, 2012). The protection of copyright should not extend to methods of operations, ideas or facts and should be strictly limited to protecting expressions. It should not expand the rights of copyright owners. The copyright should be enforceable through civil law along with the penalties for breaches. The penalties are proportional to the damages caused to the interests of private right holders. There should be no offences related to strict liability and the criminalisation of copyright law should be minimum. The Australian publications should be preserved in order to ensure its availability for the public in case of expiration for re-use. The publications should be available for suitable exercise of public rights. The exceptions of the copyright law should exercise a flexible, fair and appropriate uses of the work by public which can be easily adjusted with the social and technological practices and maintain a balance between them (Copyright Org AU Report, 2015). References Davison, Mark J; Ann Louise Monnotti; Leanne Wiseman (2008). Australian intellectual property law. Cambridge University Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-521-61338-5. Australian Copyright Council Report (2012). Australian Copy Right law factors. Available at: https://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtections/Documents/ShortGuidetoCopyright-October2012.pdf last accessed on: August 20th august 2016. Copyright Org AU Report (2015). Copyright Laws of Australia. Available at : https://www.copyright.org.au/acc_prod/ACC/Home/ACC/Home.aspx?hkey=24823bbe-5416-41b0-b9b1-0f5f6672fc31 last accessed: August 20th august 2016. Copyright Agency Australia Report (2012). Copyright Agencies Australia. Copyright Agency Limited v Queensland Department of Education (2012) AIPC 5, CHH.