Australian Copyright Amendment Act
14-Dec-2006Kim Weatherall notes (in verse) that the Federal Copyright Amendment Act 2006 was signed into law on Tuesday by Whatshisface the Substitute Governor-General. The Attorney-General’s Department issued a press release titled “Copyright Gift for Consumers.”
In the end, it looks like the law is not as bad as it could have been. According to the Attorney General’s FAQ, you can still sing “Happy Birthday” in public, format-shift unprotected media, watch DVDs from other regions, and loan your music collection to household and family members. There are also exemptions to allow circumvention of technological protection measures to aid people with disabilities.
In the end the new rights consumers receive are balanced by the addition of on-the-spot fines with strict criminal liability (no “I wasn’t aware” defence) seems to be the downside for consumers. I previously noted that I expect that copyright owners and distributors will increasingly employ copy protection (technological protection measures) to provide for ease of liability determination in an attempt to limit casual piracy and format shifting.
