Australia Drafts Further Tightening of Copyright Laws

The Australian Attorney-General’s Department is looking to increase the penalties for copyright infringement, and has outlined its proposal in a new draft resolution.

Note: This is an article I wrote that was published elsewhere first. It has been republished here for archival purposes

The proposal offers new penalties which essentially give copyright infringers a choice; either pay a fine or risk court prosecution. Of course, paying a fine usually implies money. With this draft, the penalty could also include the device used to created the infringing “article”. The maximum fine money-wise is $6,600.00 (Australian).

The draft of the copyright infringement notice scheme (PDF, also available in word format) says that copyright infringement offenses include, among other things:

·Making infringing copy commercially.
·Selling or hiring out infringing copy.
·Exhibiting infringing copy in public commercially.
·Distributing infringing copy.
·Making (or possessing) device for making infringing copy.
·Causing recording or film to be heard or seen in public.

An officer of the law, under what this draft scheme proposes, can confiscate the “infringing article” and the “infringing device”. The proposal describes the alleged infringing article as “…an infringing copy of a work or other subject-matter and that is alleged to have been involved in the commission of the offence.”

The “infringing device” is “…a device that is alleged to have been made to be used for making an infringing copy of a work or other subject-matter and that is alleged to have been involved in the commission of the offence.”

So, for example, if someone was caught selling a pirated music album, the “infringing article” would be the CD, and the “infringing device” would be the CD burner used to make the pirated CD.

The Australian Attorney-General’s Department has issued a deadline of October 5th for all comments. Comments can be sent via e-mail.

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.