Copyright

ALIA supports balanced copyright and related laws that advance the interests of society as a whole.

ALIA's Copyright and Intellectual Property Advisory Committee monitors copyright and intellectual property policy and legislative developments of interest to members and advises the Board of Directors on these matters. ALIA is also a member of the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) and the Australian Digital Alliance (ADA).

An important part of advocacy is the preparation of submissions. Recent copyright inquiries to which ALIA has made submissions include:

• ACCC Draft Guide to Copyright licensing and collecting societies, 2007
• Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, 2004
• World Intellectual Property Organisation - WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT), 2004

ALIA responses to these and other inquiries can be found on the ALIA submissions page. In addition ALIA, through its membership of ALCC and ADA is a contributor to submissions made by those bodies.

Recent changes to Copyright Law

The Copyright Amendment Act 2006 received Royal Assent in December 2006. The major changes of interest to libraries are

• new definition of library
• definition of administrative purposes clarified
• changes to 'fair dealing' for research and study
• new 'fair dealing' exception for parody or satire
• addition of 'special case' exceptions for libraries, archives and educational institutions

Further information is available from the Australian Copyright Council website.

ALIA's copyright advice service