Broad ranging amendments to the Copyright Act which (in part) implement obligations under the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) were introduced into parliament on October 19, 2006. They serve to bolster the power of copyright interests through the introduction of a series of new criminal offences and the extension of prohibitions on circumventing technological locks. They “balance” this with the introduction of some narrowly defined user rights.
There is a certain inequality between what we apparently had a right to do under the old laws, and what we are now allowed to do under the AUSFTA last year. I don't think we have seen all the damage that it has done to the Australian 'body politic' yet. I think that given the way information is accessed online, the whole idea of copyright needs to be re-imagined - not only for what it was and why it was first created, but what it might be in the future.
The trouble at the moment is due to the need by those who have made capital investment in previous states of art with regard to copyrights, but where/what/how people are using it can be very different to how the tradition of copyright use dictates.
Warning. Thinking in process!
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