CIU111 — Blog 2 — Copyright & Contracts
In this lecture we learnt about the steps we need to take in order to protect our intellectual property (IP) in Australia.
In Australia — under the Copyright Act 1968 — work that fits under the following criteria is protected by copyright: textual work, musical and sound recordings, artistic works, films, computer application, broadcast and published editions.
In 1968 digital copyright protections wasn’t exactly something put into the law. And as digital works grew, the Copyright Act had to be amended into protection digital work. These were amended in the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000 and Copyright Amendment Act 2006. These amendments included the protection of digital materials (digital sounds, video creations etc…). It also made it easier for users to access copyright material without breaking the law. Furthermore, legally allowing people to copy digital pieces for all their devices (MP3 from your computer into CD for your car, VHS into DVD). It also allows people to record and watch/listen to TV Shows/Radio Broadcasts at a later time. All of these are for personal use, “sharing with others” will result in a breach of copyright.
For us — Australians — copyright is free and is applicable as soon as your IP is presented in a tangible form (hard copy script, sound recording). You do not need to publish or even include the copyright symbol for copyright to apply. And the implementation of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) resulted in the addition of the +70years after the death of the creator to further protect pieces of work.
However, Copyright doesn’t protect everything. Other people can have similar ideas to you, and they might act on it faster, but that doesn’t mean they stole the idea. An idea cannot be copyrighted. Concepts, Styles, Techniques and Information are not covered by Copyright. Additionally, Employers (usually) hold copyright over material that their employees create — so you might do 90% of the work in a project, but your employer decides if you can publicly display and if you can/cant sell the piece if work for money.
There are multiple issues with copyright that cannot be fully solved. In recent times there have been an influx of musicians being sued for similar sounding pieces of music. Its a fine line to walk, technically speaking, many forms of art will be similar (in their respective genres). As a result copyright laws will need to be amended as time progresses.
A case of Copyright laws being amended (in America) would be the case of “Its a Wonderful Life” and its distributions rights.
Fair use of copyright includes materials uses by schools (for research and study uses), libraries, reviewers (media critics) and government bodies. And in comparison, instances to breach copyright include: use without permission (includes additions and subtractions to piece of work), importing and selling copyrighted items without proper documents.
Copyright is an essential topic for any creative individual to understand. To read the contracts they sign, to make sure they get the rights to external pieces of work (copyrighted music) so that it can be used beyond just a few screenings. Its easy to fall into a legal limbo if they take any shortcut, so its better to take precautions, read the contracts and follow procedures to prevent any legal battles.