29 April 1995

Stronger copyright bad for Australia - Sir Anthony Mason

Sir Anthony Mason AC KBE, Chairman of the National Library of Australia Council and former chief justice of the High Court of Australia today gave the Australian Library and Information Association Library Week Oration at the State Library of New South Wales. His paper, Reading the future, raises serious concerns about access to information for all Australians.

Of the many issues facing libraries, and everyone who uses them, Sir Anthony argues that an expansion of the law of copyright is perhaps the issue of greatest concern. An expanded copyright regime imposes new costs on education, libraries, business, government, the entertainment industry and individuals, not least Australian students.

Sir Anthony expresses a 'profound sense of unease' that the Copyright Law Review Committee (CLRC), whose task it is to review and simplify the Copyright Act 1968, has lost sight of the 'paramount Australian public interest in the free flow of knowledge, ideas and information.'

His concern is compounded by what he sees as the failure of the CLRC to acknowledge that 'the value of Australia's imports of copyright material far outweighs the value of its exports of such material and the extension of copyright protection will, in all probability, aggravate that marked imbalance'.

Although noting that 'Australia is currently a net importer of copyright material' the CLRC comments that 'Our copyright regime may change this...'

But in Sir Anthony's view, 'Given the marked imbalance of well over $1 billion, a new copyright regime of extended protection would need to have magical properties to bring about the result suggested by the CLRC.'

Although an expansion of copyright suits copyright owners and large commercial interests in the United States and Europe, Australia has much to lose.

The drift towards an expansion of copyright protection can be seen in efforts to introduce a broad right of transmission to the public, to make electronic browsing of documents on screen an infringement, to undermine the doctrine of fair dealing, and to extend the duration of copyright protection.