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It looks like some good will come from the US FTA in the areas of format shifting and fair use. File this under notable announcements.

MAJOR COPYRIGHT REFORMS STRIKE BALANCE

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock today announced significant copyright reforms which make our laws fairer for consumers and tougher on copyright pirates.

“These are commonsense amendments which will maintain Australia’s copyright laws as the best in the world for the benefit of our creators and other copyright owners and for the many Australians who enjoy their creative works,” Mr Ruddock said.

The changes will, for the first time:

• Make it legal for people to tape their favourite TV or radio program and play it at another time
• Legalise ‘format shifting’ of material such as music, newspapers, 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 disabilities to allow access to copyright materials
• Allow the use of copyright material for parody or satire
• Provide new enforcement measures to combat copyright piracy including onthe-spot fines, proceeds of crime remedies, a change in presumptions in litigation to make it easier to establish copyright piracy

Research also will be undertaken by the Australian Institute of Criminology on the nature and the extent of piracy and counterfeiting in Australia and how best to respond to the problem.

“Copyright is important and should be respected,” Mr Ruddock said. “That is why the Government is updating our laws to keep pace with technology.”

“Everyday consumers shouldn’t be treated like copyright pirates. Copyright pirates should be not treated like everyday consumers.

The Government also has agreed to remove the statutory cap on licence fees paid by radio broadcasters for using sound recordings. There is no reason why a statute should determine what the rate should be for music played on the radio. [This will not impact on community broadcasters.]

A draft exposure Bill including these and other reforms will be released in the near future to enable further consultation with stakeholders.

[...]

The worrying parts of the press release include “[...] a change in presumptions in litigation to make it easier to establish copyright piracy” and the following from the FAQ:

Q: Can I make a ‘back-up’ copy of a CD in case the original is lost or damaged?

A: No. A format-shift copy must be in a different audio format to the original.

With a lack of forethought or wholesale surrender to DRM, the changes also (explicitly?) exclude copy-protected audio CDs, Software and DVDs from format shifting liberalisation. I suspect these new changes will result in expanded use of DRM and widespread abandonment of the liberalised media formats by copyright holders.

Overall, these changes sounds like good news for Australian consumers who own audio on unprotected tapes, CDs, books and video tapes they would like to format shift. The market effects will probably be bad news for consumers in the long term as media shifts to “protected” media.

The Australia-USA FTA’s requirement for harmonisation of Technical Protection Measures laws is likely to see Australia pass a DMCA-lite bill real soon. Consumers have been offered their carrot, now we’re going to see just how big a stick can be.

** 26-5-2006: Updated with clearer summary and added link to the March 1st 2006 parliamentary report from the “Inquiry into technological protection measures (TPM) exceptions” **