Ciao all,
Following up on this thread from several months ago - Regarding the Australia 'fair use' banner campaign.
TD;DR version - the result is 'no result', and all sides go back to the beginning.
The Australian government has now officially made its reply to the report (which it was legally required to do by the end of the year). The report was commissioned by the government several years ago, and published last year - by the 'Productivity Commission' on the topic of 'intellectual property arrangements'. One, possibly the biggest, recommendation of that report was for Aus to introduce Fair Use copyright exception, but many other parts of the report exist to which are irrelevant to our purposes (e.g. patent law etc.)
The Government's reply on issue of Fair Use is:
The Government notes this recommendation and will further consult.
The Government’s aim is to create a modernised copyright exceptions framework that keeps pace
with technological advances and is flexible to adapt to future changes. There are arguments that
Australia’s current exceptions for fair dealing are restrictive when compared with international
counterparts and may not permit some reasonable fair uses of copyright material. However, this is a
complex issue and there are different approaches available to address it.
The Government will publicly consult on more flexible copyright exceptions. Consultation will occur
in early 2018 following the finalisation of other copyright reform priorities, such as the
Government’s review of the Copyright Regulations, and the Collecting Societies’ Voluntary Code of
Conduct, and will align with the Government’s consideration of how best to implement
recommendations 5.1 and 6.2. This timeframe will also provide adequate time to properly consider
the complexities of possible changes, and gather more detailed information on the regulatory
impact of any changes.
Where other recommendations receive a "support", "support in principle" or "does not support" response, this one receives only a "notes" response. That is - they are not going to jump one way or the other on this issue and notwithstanding DECADES of reports and consultations (see the above 'history of fair use proposals in Australia' WP article) there will be "further consultation". BOTH the opponents and proponents of Fair Use for Australia have published press-releases saying the "welcome" the response and will doubtless be the same groups gearing-up to fight the next round of this boxing match...
I suppose that at least we should be glad they've left the door open and not directly rejected the idea, but it feels to me like I've wasted a lot of time and effort. The government was *always* going to do whatever was its existing policies and recommendations contrary to the party policy go nowhere (this counts for all parties in Australia - not just the current governing party). This is not withstanding that our project generated [probably] the largest grassroots letter-to-your-MP campaign on a copyright topic in Australian history (seriously: 10k people writing to their politicians about proposed changes to copyright exceptions? That's unheard of!)
This whole commissioned-report and multiple rounds consultation has produced an official result of "more discussion needed" due to a lack of political motivation to make any change to the status-quo. If they'd rejected the idea outright then at least we could have a sense of righteous indignation :-P
- Liam / Wittylama
p.s. For those interested: Joseph Seddon and I also presented on the project during wikimania this year, which was before the Aus Government reply was published.
Sincerely,
-Liam/Wittylama