Australian A-G announces agenda for copyright reviews in 2011 – February 25, 2011

On 25 February 2011, the Commonwealth Attorney-General Robert McClelland addressed the Blue Sky Conference: Future Directions in Copyright Law. He indicated that his department may examine several copyright issues in the year ahead, including:

• examining the policy implications of the Full Federal Court’s decision in the AFACT v iiNet case (Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Limited [2011] FCAFC 23);
• consulting on a proposal to broaden the definition of “carriage service provider”, which currently excludes entities that do not provide network access but provide online services (eg Google, Yahoo);
• inviting submissions on whether new exceptions under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) should be introduced to permit some circumvention of technological protection measures, such as for education purposes; and
• providing the Australian Law Reform Commission with a reference on copyright later in the year, which may include examining “some exceptions under our law in the context of the online environment and whether the correct balance exists”.