AG commissions cost-benefit study on fair use

The Attorney-General's Department has commissioned a cost-benefit analysis into the prospect of inserting fair use exceptions into Australian copyright law.

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALCR) drew up a report last year into copyright law and the digital economy. The key recommendation was to introduce a fair use exception, or at least consolidate and expand current fair dealing exceptions.

Now the government plans to study the anticipated economic impact on the proposed changes on Australian copyright holders and copyright user groups.

According to the ALRC's report, the fair use of copyright material should not be considered copyright infringement. US fair use clauses grant exceptions to use of copyright material for purposes including education, criticism or review, satire or news reporting.

If introduced, non-commercial private use and technical use exemptions could be a boon to the technology sector, as they would cover applications including data caches and cloud computing.

But Attorney-General George Brandis has historically shown a willingness to take the side of the content industries and other copyright holders, and has previously argued against fair use exceptions as well as the concept that copyright laws need to fundamentally change in the digital era.

Both the Coalition and Labor recently supported a Bill to allow rights holders to ask the Federal Court to have overseas piracy websites blocked in Australia.

The Coalition is also backing an industry-run scheme to send 'education notices' to ISPs' subscribers found to have infringed on copyright, despite the government's own research showing that such notices are unlikely to curb piracy.

Image courtesy of Paul Gallo under CC