Copyright at Monash: an introduction
What is copyright?
Copyright is a type of Intellectual Property, like trademarks or patents.
Australian copyright law is contained in the Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth), its predecessors and court decisions.
This legislation balances the rights of copyright
owners to compensation for use of their work, with
access to information by the community.
Copyright gives copyright owners exclusive rights to do or authorise others to do particular acts in relation
to the protected material. The scope of the rights depends on the subject
matter. In 2001, major changes were made to Australian copyright law
by the Digital Agenda Amendments, to acknowledge the changes
which have been wrought by new information technology. The centre piece
of the amendments was the new technology-neutral right of 'communication'
to the public.
In December 2006 further amendments to the Copyright Act were made to comply with the Australia and United States Free Trade Agreement.
Information on these amendments is found in
Send inquiries to the university's Copyright Advisor.
|
