The Government has today announced a review of Australian Contract Law.

This is likely to have implications for copyright licensing. For example, there have been some interesting decisions in relation to browsewrap licensing recently. http://www.copyright.org.au/news-and-policy/details/id/2026/

There was also the 2002 Copyright Law Review inquiry into Copyright and Contract. http://www.ag.gov.au/Copyright/CopyrightLawReviewCommittee/Reports/Copyrightandcontract/Pages/default.aspx

A copy of the discussion paper can be accessed on the Attorney-General’s Department’s website. Submissions are due on 20 July 2012.

http://www.ag.gov.au/Consultationsreformsandreviews/Pages/Review-of-Australian-Contract-Law.aspx

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The Government has today released a consultation paper on extending the legal deposit scheme in the Copyright Act as it relates to the National Library of Australia. Submissions are due on 14 April 2012.

See the press release here:

http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Media-releases/Pages/default.aspx

Download the consultation paper here:

http://www.ag.gov.au/Consultationsreformsandreviews/Pages/Extending-Legal-Deposit.aspx

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Attorney-General Nicola Roxon today announced the appointment of Professor Jill McKeough (Dean of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney) to lead an Australian Law Reform Commission review of copyright law.

The review will focus on copyright in the digital environment and particularly on the suitability of current exceptions in copyright legislation.

Draft terms of reference are expected soon. We will link to these as soon as they are made available.

For more information see below link:

http://www.alrc.gov.au/news-media/media-release/professor-jill-mckeough-appointed-alrc-commissioner-copyright-inquiry

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Optus has just won the first round in the copyright litigation over its TV Now service, with Federal Court Justice Steven Rares finding that the company’s service did not infringe the copyright of the NRL, AFL and Telstra (rightsholders of a several sporting broadcasts recorded using Optus’ service).

Optus’ TV Now service enables its customers to record free-to-air TV programs (the recordings are stored on Optus’ cloud storage platform) and stream the recorded programs to their devices for later viewing.

Telstra and the sports organisations argued that Optus made unauthorised recordings of their sports broadcasts and then made unauthorised communications of these recordings to their customers.

Optus argued that it was their users (not Optus) that made the recordings and that playback of these did not infringe copyright because they fell within the section 111 exception for recording broadcasts for private or domestic use.

Justice Rares considered seven separate issues. His findings included that the individual users were the ones that committed the act that brought about the recording and that such a recording did fall within the section 111 exception.

Leave has already been granted for Telstra and the sports organisations to appeal to the Full Federal Court.

The full text of the decision can be found at:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2012/34.html

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