Copyright Law and Protection in Australia

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Student Name:
Date:
Institution:

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Question 1
Copyright law results in creating incentive for the persons who have invested their talent, time
and resources for creating new material, especially cultural and educational material. Therefore,
the owners of copyright are entitled under the law for controlling certain uses of the material
created by them and on the spaces they can earn licensing fees, royalties and other payments.
Generally these persons are also allowed by the law to control how this material is going to be
used by other people, and in this way protect their interests. In Australia the law related with
copyright has been mentioned in the Copyright Act, 1968. This legislation is applicable
throughout Australia as it is a Federal legislation. Apart from dealing with copyright, this Act is
also related with the rights of the performers and also the moral rights that are available to
individual creators.1
Therefore, it can be said that a copyright provides protection to particular categories of material
which include musical, literary, dramatic and artistic works, audiovisual recordings and also
sound recordings. The owners of copyright have been given the right to control certain use of
their material including the reproduction of the material, "communicating" it had in case of
material like music, song lyrics, felons and sound recordings, performing the material in public.
It is also worth mentioning that there is no registration of copyright in Australia, and similarly
there are no formalities that are necessary for getting the copyright.2 Copyright can be described
as a property. The owners of copyright can sell (assign) or license any part of the material.
Generally copyright lasts until 70 years from the end of the year in which the creator had died.
1 Sarah Ailwood and Maree Sainsbury, "The Imperial Effect: Literary Copyright Law In
Colonial Australia" (2016) 12(3)
Law, Culture and the Humanities.
2
Lexisnexis Intellectual Property Collection 2019 (LexisNexis Butterworths, 2019).

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However, there are certain significant exceptions present in this regard.3 For example, if the
material has not been published in the lifetime of the creator, it will continue to be protected by
copyright indefinitely.4
Application of Copyright to music: material is considered to be protected by copyright, if it falls
under one of the categories of material that have been mentioned in the Copyright Act. In these
categories include musical works, sound recordings and literary works (also song lyrics).
Separate protection is protected by copyright to sound recordings. This copyright is in addition to
any copyrights present in the material on the recording. Therefore, in case of a CD, their may be
(i) a copyright in each musical work; (ii) , a copyright in lyrics of each song; and (iii) a copyright
in a sound recording of the music and its lyrics.
What is not protected by copyright: it needs to be noted that protection is not provided by
copyright to ideas, information, techniques or styles. (In some cases, your ideas, studies of
information may be used by another people without permission. And this can be a breach of
other laws also). Similarly copyright does not protect names, slogans and titles (however it may
be relevant in other areas of law like trademarks).
How to get copyright protection: An original work, falling under one of the relevant categories is
automatically protected as soon as it has been recorded in some way. In this context, a work can
be considered as 'original' in context of copyright law is the work has not been copied from
another work and it is the result of the labor of skill of its author. In Australia there is no need for
applying for copyright and similarly there is no system of registration of copyright in Australia.
3 Caterina Sganga and Silvia Scalzini, "From Abuse Of Right To European Copyright Misuse: A
New Doctrine For EU Copyright Law" (2017) 48(4)
IIC - International Review of Intellectual
Property and Competition Law.
4 Mireille Hildebrandt, "Saved By Design? The Case Of Legal Protection By Design" (2017)
11(3)
NanoEthics.

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There is no need for publishing the work and putting a copyright notice on it or to do anything
else before. The work can be considered as protected by copyright; the protection provided by
copyright is free and automatic. In case of a dispute related with the ownership of copyright
cannot be resolved through negotiations, it may have to be resolved by the courts. However these
are rare circumstances.5 But if the court has to resolve this dispute, the court is required to
consider all the relevant evidence. Generally, it includes the evidence given by the writer of the
song regarding how the song was written and the evidence presented drafts and early recordings.
In some cases, evidence may also be given by friends and acquaintances.6
Copyright notice: although it is not necessary for getting the copyright protection, but it is a good
idea if the "copyright notice" is used on the work. The most common and internationally
accepted way of writing the notice is in the form of © followed by the name of the copyright
owner and the ear of first publication or the creation of the work. In case of sound recordings, the
letter "P" (phonogram) in a circle or brackets is used in place of the letter "C" in a circle. A
person can place the copyright notice on the work created by him or her. There is no need for
adopting any formal procedure. Therefore, the copyright notice can be handwritten, tied or
stamped on the music and the lyrics that have been written down on the music recordings,
including the demo tapes.7
The purpose of copyright notice is to protect someone who sees the work to become aware of the
fact that the material is protected by copyright and also the fact that the person named claims to
5 Anne F. Jennings, "Cases Of Note: An Examination Of The "Works For Hire" Written
Agreement Under The Copyright Act Of 1909 And The Copyright Act Of 1976" (2013) 7(4)
Against the Grain.
6 Hutchison, Cameron J., "Understanding Copy Right" [2016] SSRN Electronic Journal
7 Rain Chen, "Design Knowledge Protection Of Design Process Orientation And Law Object
Orientation" (2015) 22(1)
Knowledge and Process Management.