Prosecraft has infuriated authors by using their books without consent – but what does copyright law say?; The Conversation, August 9, 2023

Dilan Thampapillai Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney , The Conversation; Prosecraft has infuriated authors by using their books without consent – but what does copyright law say?

"In amending its laws, Australia legislated that parody or satire could form the basis of a fair dealing exception. A specific transformative use exception was not created. 

So, it is significantly less clear as to whether the use contemplated by Prosecraft or Shaxpir would be considered fair dealing in Australia. 

Australia has either missed a trick or dodged a bullet by failing to include transformative use as a fair dealing exception. It depends where you stand in the ongoing conflict between AI tech and human authors. But Australia’s laws are less AI-friendly than the US.

For the moment, published human authors are banking on the idea that if they can knock out the shadow library, they can hobble the reach of AI tech."

Australia to reform copyright laws in face of digital and COVID-19 world; ZDNet, August 13, 2020

Campbell Kwan , ZDNet; Australia to reform copyright laws in face of digital and COVID-19 world

The changes include a new fair dealing exception that allows cultural and educational institutions, governments, and other persons engaged in public interest or personal research to quote copyright material.

"The Australian government has announced it will make reforms to the nation's copyright laws in a bid to better support the needs of Australians in an increasingly digital environment.

The decision comes after two years of industry consultation and is the government's response to copyright recommendations made by the Productivity Commission four years ago...  

"The need for change has been further highlighted during COVID-19, with schools, universities, cultural institutions, and governments moving more services online."  

The proposed copyright reforms are focused on five main measures: Introducing a limited liability scheme for use of orphan works; a new fair dealing exception for non-commercial quotation; amendments to library and archives exceptions; amendments to education exceptions; and streamlining the government's statutory licensing scheme."

Proposals for Copyright Law and Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic; infojustice, June 9, 2020

Emily Hudson and Paul Wragg, infojustice; Proposals for Copyright Law and Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

"Abstract: This article asks whether the catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic justifies new limitations or interventions in copyright law so that UK educational institutions can continue to serve the needs of their students. It describes the existing copyright landscape and suggests ways in which institutions can rely on exceptions in the CDPA, including fair dealing and the exemption for lending by educational establishments. It then considers the viability of other solutions. It argues that issues caused by the pandemic would not enliven a public interest defence to copyright infringement (to the extent this still exists in UK law) but may be relevant to remedies. It also argues that compulsory licensing, while permissible under international copyright law, would not be a desirable intervention, but that legislative expansion to the existing exceptions, in order to encourage voluntary collective licensing, has a number of attractions. It concludes by observing that the pandemic highlights issues with the prevailing model for academic publishing, and asks whether COVID may encourage universities to embrace in-house and open access publishing more swiftly and for an even greater body of material."

South Africa’s Proposed Copyright Fair Use Right Should Be A Model For The World; Intellectual Property Watch, July 24, 2018

Intellectual Property Watch; South Africa’s Proposed Copyright Fair Use Right Should Be A Model For The World

[Kip Currier: I'm teaching 15 online students in my Intellectual Property and "Open" Movements course this Summer Term and posted this announcement on our Courseweb site today:


I highly recommend reading this article, especially as a capstone to the material we have explored this term and in conjunction with your reading of this course's final required text, Reclaiming Fair Use by Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi.

Questions to consider:

• What did you notice about fair use from reading the article?
• In what ways does U.S. fair use compare with South Africa's proposed fair use right?
• What are some ways that the proposed South Africa fair use right may impact copyright holders, users, and other stakeholders?
• Did you notice which persons and organizations are the authors of the article?
• How about that fair use is a "defense" in the U.S. and a "right" in the South African proposal?
• How does the proposed South African fair use right compare and contrast with the recent controversial European Union Copyright Directive?
• What else...?]

"Sean Flynn, American University Washington College of Law
Michael W. Carroll, American University Washington College of Law
Peter Jaszi, American University Washington College of Law
Ariel Katz, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law
Leandro Mendonça, Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Cultural Production Department
Diane Peters, Creative Commons Corporation (HQ)
Allan Rocha de Souza, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ)

In addition to a set of more open specific exceptions, the South Africa bill contains a well-crafted and unique general exception for “fair use.” The magic of the South African general exception is not in adopting the term “fair use.” The phrases “fair use” and “fair dealing” mean the same thing. The key change is the addition of “such as” before the list of purposes covered by the right, making the provision applicable to a use to a use for any purpose, as long as that use is fair to the author...

We believe that the South African proposal gets it just right. We commend its Parliament on both the openness of this process and on the excellent drafting of the proposed fair use clause. We are confident it will become a model for other countries around the world that seek to modernize their copyright laws for the digital age."

Fans howl over taking down World Cup Twitter posts for copyright issues; NBC News, July 14, 2018

Francis Whittaker, NBC News;

Fans howl over taking down World Cup Twitter posts for copyright issues

 

"The removal of Conn’s tweet created a minor tabloid furor in the U.K.

It also raised broader questions about how effectively accusations of copyright infringement are enforced on digital platforms, and whether such notices — and the filter technologies that are likely behind them — take into account copyright exceptions and fair use of material."

Fair Use Vs Fair Dealing: How Australian Copyright Law Differs; Lifehacker, July 18, 2017

Nicolas Suzor, Lifehacker; Fair Use Vs Fair Dealing: How Australian Copyright Law Differs

"Copyright law sometimes allows you to use someone else’s work - as long as it’s fair. In Australia this is called “fair dealing”, and it’s different to the law in the US, which is called “fair use”. We explain the difference.

These exceptions are safety valves in copyright law – they allow lots of beneficial uses that society has agreed copyright owners should not be able to charge for, or worse, prevent.

There’s a serious ongoing debate about whether Australia should update its copyright laws and introduce fair use. The current law is not easy to understand – our research shows that Australian creators are often confused about their rights – and many think we already have fair use.

Fair dealing: What can you do in Australia?

The key difference between “fair use” and “fair dealing” is that Australia’s “fair dealing” laws set out defined categories of acceptable uses. As we will see, “fair use” in the US is much more flexible.

Australian copyright law sets out five situations where use of copyrighted material without permission may be allowed:

• research or study
• criticism or review
• parody or satire
• reporting the news
• provision of legal advice.

We’ll explain the first four, as they’re most useful to the average Australian."

Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week; Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Monday, February 20 through Friday, February 24, 2017

Association of Research Libraries (ARL); 

Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week: 

Monday, February 20 through Friday, February 24, 2017

"Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is an annual celebration of the important doctrines of fair use and fair dealing. It is designed to highlight and promote the opportunities presented by fair use and fair dealing, celebrate successful stories, and explain these doctrines."

UK Copyright Infringement: ‘Fair Dealing’ in Digital World; National Law Review, 11/7/16

National Law Review; UK Copyright Infringement: ‘Fair Dealing’ in Digital World:

"Fair dealing is, in essence, a defence to copyright infringement. It allows you to copy part of a (usually already published) third party copyright work without having to get the copyright owner’s prior permission. For example, it would allow you to copy a short passage from a book, to reproduce a photograph or other image, or to use clips from television, film or online footage. You are not required to make any payment to the copyright owner in return for use of their material. You do not need to let the copyright owner know what you are doing and you can go ahead even if the copyright owner is aware of what you are doing and objects. It is irrelevant whether you are acting in a commercial or non-commercial context.

The fair dealing defence is set out in Chapter III of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA). There are a number of specific fair dealing exceptions covering, for example, libraries and educational settings. However, some aspects of the fair dealing defence are of wider application."

The Fair Use/Fair Dealing Handbook; InfoJustice.org, 3/27/13

Jonathan Band, InfoJustice.org; The Fair Use/Fair Dealing Handbook: "More than 40 countries with over one-third of the world’s population have fair use or fair dealing provisions in their copyright laws. These countries are in all regions of the world and at all levels of development. The broad diffusion of fair use and fair dealing indicates that there is no basis for preventing the more widespread adoption of these doctrines, with the benefits their flexibility brings to authors, publishers, consumers, technology companies, libraries, museums, educational institutions, and governments."

Creation and copyright law: the case of 3D printing; Conversation, 11/8/12

Matthew Rimmer, Conversation; Creation and copyright law: the case of 3D printing: "In Australia, the developers of 3D printing face certain risks and uncertainties in respect to litigation under Australian copyright law. Australia does not have a broad, open-ended, flexible defence of fair use, like the United States. Instead, Australia has the much more narrow defence of fair dealing. The permitted purposes for fair dealing include research and study; criticism and review; reporting the news; and parody and satire. The developers of 3D printing would struggle to obtain protection under the defence of fair dealing – outside educational applications within Australian universities. As such, the developers behind 3D printing would be loath to establish their operations in Australia. They would be vulnerable to copyright law suits. Such entrepreneurs would be better off sheltering under the protection afforded by the defence of fair use in the United States. No wonder MakerBot and Solidoodle are based in Brooklyn, not Sydney. Given our comparative disadvantage in the digital economy, with our strict and draconian copyright laws, Australia would be well-advised to revise its copyright laws and adopt a defence of fair use, which is flexible enough to accommodate the emergence of 3D printing."

Fair Usage In Caribbean Intellectual Property; Intellectual Property Watch, 1/16/11

Abiola Inniss, Intellectual Property Watch; Fair Usage In Caribbean Intellectual Property:

"At almost any time that the issue of intellectual property is discussed by peoples of the Caribbean there is considerable confusion and uncertainty to be found about what the law says, what it means and what the rights of usage are.

This is not surprising or unexpected since many lawyers are themselves hard put upon to provide pertinent answers to the many arising issues. This is not aided in the least by broad statements on intellectual property such as the definitions given by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which are a general aid to understanding the subject area but which cannot deal with the variations in national laws and which do not explain that with any of the rights described, responsibilities also exist."