3. Strengthening control over copyright protection technology circumvention.
4. Agreeing to copyright protection standards.
5. Increasing the length of copyright to life plus seventy years from its previous level
of life plus fifty years. 48
Most of these provisions were implemented in the U.S. Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act 2004, though new regulations in response to requirement 3 were
recently implemented in the Copyrights Amendment Act 2006. 49
After implementing a system of copyright more consistent with that of the United
States, the Australian government decided to pursue another overhaul of its copyright
laws in 2006, as ABC Science Online reports, to ‘‘keep up with the rapidly changing digital landscape.’’ 50 The proposed amendments to the Copyright Act 1968 were worrisome to many. Google argued that certain provisions would allow copyright owners
to pursue legal action against it and other search engines for caching material without
obtaining express permission from each Web site. These provisions would ‘‘condemn
the Australian public to the pre-Internet era,’’ Google argued. 51 Other critics contended
that the proposed amendments would make possession of an iPod or other musiclistening device designed to play MP3 files illegal, and uploading a video of oneself
singing along to a pop song a crime. 52
Although these two final concerns have been remedied in the resulting Copyrights
Amendment Act 2006 (it is still legal to own an iPod and it is allowable to post a lipsynching video), 53 the caching issue still appears to be unresolved. There is an exception in the act that allows computer networks of educational institutions to cache
copyright-protected online material ‘‘to facilitate efficient later access to the works and
other subject-matter by users of the system.’’ 54 However, this provision does not appear to offer the exception that Google sought.
Overall, though, the amendments allow for a greater number of exceptions to the
copyright laws to establish more realistic fair use of copyrighted material, such as
‘‘time-shifting, format-shifting and space-shifting’’ (recording a television show to
watch later, scanning a book to view it electronically, and transferring material from
CDs to iPods, respectively), and greater protection of parody and satire. 55
The Australian judiciary has been active in copyright enforcement online as well. In
a landmark decision in December 2006, the Federal Court upheld a lower court ruling
that found the Web site operator of mp3s4free.net, Stephen Cooper, and the hosting
ISP, E-Talk, liable for copyright infringement. Cooper’s site did not itself host any copyright-protected material, but rather served as a search engine through which users
could find and download copyright-protected music for free. In its ruling, the court
found that merely linking to copyright-protected material was grounds for infringement. In addition, the court found that ISP E-Talk was also liable for copyright infringement because it posted advertisements on the site and was unwilling to take the
Australia and New Zealand Overview
397
4. Agreeing to copyright protection standards.
5. Increasing the length of copyright to life plus seventy years from its previous level
of life plus fifty years. 48
Most of these provisions were implemented in the U.S. Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act 2004, though new regulations in response to requirement 3 were
recently implemented in the Copyrights Amendment Act 2006. 49
After implementing a system of copyright more consistent with that of the United
States, the Australian government decided to pursue another overhaul of its copyright
laws in 2006, as ABC Science Online reports, to ‘‘keep up with the rapidly changing digital landscape.’’ 50 The proposed amendments to the Copyright Act 1968 were worrisome to many. Google argued that certain provisions would allow copyright owners
to pursue legal action against it and other search engines for caching material without
obtaining express permission from each Web site. These provisions would ‘‘condemn
the Australian public to the pre-Internet era,’’ Google argued. 51 Other critics contended
that the proposed amendments would make possession of an iPod or other musiclistening device designed to play MP3 files illegal, and uploading a video of oneself
singing along to a pop song a crime. 52
Although these two final concerns have been remedied in the resulting Copyrights
Amendment Act 2006 (it is still legal to own an iPod and it is allowable to post a lipsynching video), 53 the caching issue still appears to be unresolved. There is an exception in the act that allows computer networks of educational institutions to cache
copyright-protected online material ‘‘to facilitate efficient later access to the works and
other subject-matter by users of the system.’’ 54 However, this provision does not appear to offer the exception that Google sought.
Overall, though, the amendments allow for a greater number of exceptions to the
copyright laws to establish more realistic fair use of copyrighted material, such as
‘‘time-shifting, format-shifting and space-shifting’’ (recording a television show to
watch later, scanning a book to view it electronically, and transferring material from
CDs to iPods, respectively), and greater protection of parody and satire. 55
The Australian judiciary has been active in copyright enforcement online as well. In
a landmark decision in December 2006, the Federal Court upheld a lower court ruling
that found the Web site operator of mp3s4free.net, Stephen Cooper, and the hosting
ISP, E-Talk, liable for copyright infringement. Cooper’s site did not itself host any copyright-protected material, but rather served as a search engine through which users
could find and download copyright-protected music for free. In its ruling, the court
found that merely linking to copyright-protected material was grounds for infringement. In addition, the court found that ISP E-Talk was also liable for copyright infringement because it posted advertisements on the site and was unwilling to take the
Australia and New Zealand Overview
397