Australia To Propose Copyright Reform That Includes Fair Use

from the good-move dept

Fri, Apr 12th 2013 5:35pm — Mike Masnick

Last year, we noted that Australia was beginning the process of copyright reform, and it appeared that the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) was asking the right kinds of questions. Among the major concerns that some commenters raised was the lack of fair use under Australian copyright law. When a similar process took place in the UK, it was decided not to try to add fair use to UK law. The entertainment industry argued, ridiculously, that fair use would lead to too much litigation.

Thankfully, it appears that Australia is willing to go that extra step. There was apparently a meeting held yesterday by the Australian Law Reform Commission, in which they revealed some of the proposed reforms, which were to be officially released in a paper at the end of May. We've heard from some people who attended that the information revealed in the meeting was supposed to be kept secret, but it appears that the Australian Law Library Association jumped the gun with some thankfully revealing tweets.

The key tweet is the one that reveals the ALRC will be recommending fair use be added Down Under. This is big and excellent news. Of course, now watch closely as the legacy entertainment industry throws a complete hissy fit about how awful fair use will be in Australia. Stay tuned...

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Filed Under: alrc, australia, copyright, copyright reform, fair use

27 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 12 Apr 2013 @ 6:12pm

Fair use isn't enough. We must fight for public domain.
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- Alana (profile), 12 Apr 2013 @ 6:30pm
  
  Re:
  It's telling that it's become a thing we have to FIGHT for.
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 3:32am
  
  Re:
  Fair use in a single contry is a step in the right direction, but hardly closer to a solution.
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  - Reality Check (profile), 14 Apr 2013 @ 11:39am
    
    Re: Re:
    I agree, this is insignificant, we should just give up, it's no use. Humanities final chapter has been written. You'll never know love.
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This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

out_of_the_blue, 12 Apr 2013 @ 6:26pm

WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
Think we all can agree on that, except that Mike's fetish for lawyering may lead him to believe there's never "too much litigation".

But at least for once Mike ends the week on a hopeful note.

Dull week otherwise. Mike as usual "supporting copyright" by tearing at it from every angle with tenuous connection that he can conjure up, while ignoring HUGE events such as banksters looting Cyprus in their trial run for doing it everywhere. The Minions with even more trivial pieces. Usual ankle-biters yapping their heads off with cliches and lies for ad hom. Usual fanboys clicking to try and hide comments. -- All reasons why I delight in commenting here: such fit targets.

Take a loopy tour of Techdirt.com! You always end up same place!
http://techdirt.com/
Techdirt. It's where the wrongness is.
14:26:13[p-677-4]
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Apr 2013 @ 6:58pm
  
  Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
  Is it your inability to comprehend reality that forces you to make up your own?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 12 Apr 2013 @ 7:09pm
    
    Re: Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
    Mike could write an article about the necessity of breathing and out_of_the_lube would STILL disagree.
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    - AC Unknown, 12 Apr 2013 @ 7:55pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
      I believe that OOTB has a major malfunction in his brain housing group.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 12:59am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
        No, there's a dispute between his intelligence corp and the cavalry corps.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 2:17am
      
      Re: Re: Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
      Pirate freetard mike supports air piracy on behalf of google!
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- PopeyeLePoteaux, 12 Apr 2013 @ 9:09pm
  
  Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
  Accessing ootb brain please wait...
  ...loading...
  There is a new version of brain, would you like to download the latest brain version?
  Common sense 1.0 [ ]yes [x]no
  ...buffering...
  Brain has encountered an error please try again later...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- G Thompson (profile), 12 Apr 2013 @ 10:45pm
  
  Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
  You seem to have this misunderstanding that being litigious at all costs is how the rest of the world functions.
  
  Let me tell you a little secret.. THEY DONT! In fact the litigation reforms in places like Australia (which aren't really reforms since we have had them for over a quarter century now) mean that if some content owner tries to litigate they better have a good case because if the lose they HAVE TO PAY. Yes Loser pays here.. WOOT! It's like an ANTI-SLAP legislation without their having to be a specific legislation and application of it.
  
  So NO.. there will not be any more or less litigation with a 'fair use' defence within Australia.
  
  As for the rest of your blathering in the last paragraph... have you ever thought of Stress Management or Cognitive Based Training or even alcohol - it might help the voices
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  - Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 3:40am
    
    Re: Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
    Btw. The loser pays principle is the exact same in the rest of the western world except the odd man out: USA. There is a big powerful lobbying group of lawyers in USA supporting almost exclusively democrats in their quest to avoid reforms...
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 12:52am
  
  Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
  And another post by Mikes number 1 fanboy troll.
  
  Take a loopy tour of Techdirt.com. You will always find comments by Out of the Blue Techdirts number one fanboy troll.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 10:24pm
  
  Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
  I'll give you one thing ought_of_the_blew_Dan_Rather you provide me with some pretty good entertainment.
  
  You're about the worst troll I've ever came across, but the amount of dedication you've showed is pretty goddamned impressive. "Not really"
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Reality Check (profile), 14 Apr 2013 @ 11:54am
  
  Re: WILL "lead to too much litigation." Dead cert.
  You need to realize this is a blog, not a network news site...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
anonymouse, 12 Apr 2013 @ 9:13pm

haha
They know that if they do not start making the law relevant people will just continue to ignore it, if they throw in a few things to show they are providing something for nothing they will then have a much better chance at having people supporting them in fighting piracy.
Yet they will fight this and it will probably be watered down so much it will become irrelevant and people will continue ignoring the copyright laws.When are they going to learn that a bad law is ignored by the majority and nothing will change that until they make the law look at least partial in the consumers interest.
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R, 12 Apr 2013 @ 11:33pm

The US version of fair use effectively only operates as a defence, meaning that in practice it's rarely applied.
I'd like to see the Australian equivalent include penalties for taking down content that is fair use, so we have some balance in the system.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 12:34am

In the distant lands of the Southern Hemisphere, the sound of darryl, the repressed solar panel engineer was heard far and wide as the possibility of Fair Use in Australia made his dick sad.
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- G Thompson (profile), 13 Apr 2013 @ 1:38am
  
  Re:
  And here I thought that was just me hearing the incessant and annoying squawking of a cock-a-too in the outskirts of Sydney , when instead from your comment it was instead just darryl the cock.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 2:51am

Who needs fair use?

We have something better is called PIRACY!

Yay!

MAFIAA come and get me if you can :)
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gab4moi (profile), 13 Apr 2013 @ 2:51pm

fair use downunda... yeah, right...
Given that the Aussie version of your Republicans, the Liberal/National coalition, will probably be in power before the end of the year, due to Labors almost comical incompetence, this initiative would be dead in the water, they are not influenced by lobbyists, they ARE lobbyists, for the rich and powerful. They have already flagged gutting Labors fttp national broadband network with a tinpot fttn fraudband, their views on copyright would be feed the ancient gatekeepers as much krill as they can sweep down into their bloated guts.
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ralph, 13 Apr 2013 @ 4:06pm

Australia seems more civilized and progressive than the UK or the USA. This is ironic given that the modern-day version started as a penal colony.

In the UK we seem to have judges deciding to pull websites without due process, and in the USA an eager collaboration between the government and Hollywood to suspend the US Constitution.

Who are the real criminals?
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2013 @ 4:39pm
  
  Re:
  The real criminals are the MAFIAA and those that assist them, of course. We need laws to put them in more hot water than anyone they've ever sued or raided.
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Ninja (profile), 15 Apr 2013 @ 3:49am

If it leads to excessive litigation it'll be the legislators fault. If a law is well written in a way that it narrows space for interpretation (let's leave the secret ones out please) it may spark some litigation at first but as time goes by the morons at the MAFIAA will realize what's covered under fair use and get more cautious before filling lawsuits.
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Michael W. Perry, 15 Apr 2013 @ 11:36am

Thanks Australia
Many thanks to Australia for taking on this topic and, in particular, moving to incorporate fair use, a mostly-U.S. concept that's very useful.

We're about 30 years overdue for a revision. Copyright laws around the world (including Berne) have seen little or no revision since the 1970s, which means they have nothing to say about the Internet or digital media.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2013 @ 12:10am

People seem to have no idea the effect this will have on artist's revenues... legalising piracy is not the solution.
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