Copyright News 2007 – Items of Interest

Moral rights and performers

On 26 July 2007 Australia acceded to the World Copyright Treaty and the World Intellectual Property Organisation Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

This means the sections on moral rights for performers in the Copyright Act have come into force. Performers will have the same moral rights as other authors and creators, for sound recordings of their performances. Moral rights will not apply to audio-visual recordings of their performances.

Moral rights are the right of attribution (of being cited for your work) and the right of integrity (for your work not to be subjected to derogatory treatment). The right of integrity for a performer lasts for the lifetime of the performer. The right of attribution for a performer lasts for the life of the performer plus seventy years.

There is more information on the moral rights of performers from the Attorney General’s Department website.

Monash Copyright Advisory Group (CoAG) reporting line changed

CoAG is the main body within the university that looks at policy and issues relating to copyright. It has representation from administrative units such as ITS, the library and the off campus learning centre, from the solicitors office and from faculties. There are faculty representatives from Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, IT, Business and Economics, Art and Design and Arts. CoAG would encourage any expressions of interest in representation from other faculties also.

In the past CoAG was an advisory body. There were informal lines of communication to the office of the Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor, but no official reporting line. Now CoAG has been accepted as a sub-committee of the Strategy and Resources Committee. This will provide CoAG with an outlet for policy and procedures. It means coordinators and staff within faculties can raise issues and have them presented at the university committee level. If departments or faculties have concerns about copyright issues, faculty representatives on CoAG or the Copyright Adviser can be briefed on the issues. There is a line of reporting and accountability for these processes.

Increased penalties for copyright infringement – criminal offences

A large number of criminal copyright offences were created by changes to the Copyright Act in December 2006. The greatest risk areas for the University are:

file sharing of unauthorised copies of music, films or TV programs,
copying, recording or distributing performances or sound recordings without permission
and
showing films in public without permission.

‘In public’ means any seminar or class that is not restricted to students of Monash. This is also a strict liability offence. A staff member would not have to have any knowledge or understanding of copyright infringement under this provision. Strict liability means the mere committing of the act is enough for the offence to be proven. Fines are a maximum of $6600 per offence.

If a person deliberately or recklessly breaches these new offences, they could face a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment and/or $60,500 to $93,500 in fines per offence. Negligent breaches have penalties of up to 2 years imprisonment and/or fines of $13,200 per offence.

Draft guidelines for Copyright Infringement Notice Scheme

Changes to the Copyright Act in 2006, also included a scheme of on-the-spot-fines and notices for criminal copyright infringement. This is somewhat similar to the system of speeding fines. Draft guidelines on the Infringement Notices and Forfeiture of Infringing Copies and Devices Scheme were issued by the Attorney General’s Department in August 2007. The guidelines are to provide direction for police in the operation of the copyright notice scheme. Infringement notices are designed to be used for minor offences of copyright infringement, such as market stall operators selling infringing DVDs for the first time.

This scheme is unlikely to impact on students or staff of the university, in their activities at Monash. But it is an interesting development in the way that the Government is tackling copyright infringement.

If you would like more information on copyright issues or have any questions about copyright, please contact me, Megan Deacon on 9905 5732 or university.copyright@lib.monash.edu.au or visit the copyright website at www.copyright.monash.edu.au/.