ALIA copyright service: the digital agenda

30 June 2000

The Digital Agenda Bill passed by the House of Representatives

Nick Smith
Executive Officer, Australian Digital Alliance
Copyright Advisor, Australian Libraries Copyright Committee

The Digital Agenda Bill was passed by the House of Representatives on 28 June. This included the government's acceptance of two of the ALP Amendments (as outlined previously):

• The preservation reproduction communication provision allowing libraries and archives to display such reproductions onsite on terminals which do not permit communications or reproductions has been qualified, permitting such display only where the orginal artwork is unstable, has deteriorated etc; and
  
  
• The circumvention device permitted purposes provisions (the circumstances under which an individual or organisation can legitimately acquire a circumvention device (a device for getting around software locks)) have been tightened to some degree, making it slightly more difficult to obtain such a device.

(The issue of film directors copyright remains as a question to be decided).

As the government and the ALP agreed and the House passed the Bill with these provisions, it's pretty well certain that this is how the Copyright Act will end up.

The Bill now goes to the Senate in August. Once the Bill has been passed by the Senate, it must be signed by the Governor General (which doesn't take long) and then there is a 6-month delay before it comes into effect.