Of Copyright Bureaucracies and Incoherence: Stepping Back from Australia's Recent Copyright Reforms

Abstract

Australian copyright law has recently undergone a period of intense reform. In this article, the author seeks to give both a comprehensive history of the period just past, and a bird's-eye view of the resulting reforms - highlighting the hitherto unremarked way in which they affected the many institutions which manage copyright. In short, recent copyright reforms have a peculiarly 'bureaucratic' bent. In many areas the government created detailed rules capable of objective application - rules ideally tailored, perhaps, to the many organisations that participated in the development of copyright policy over the period. In addition, the new copyright laws almost across the board reserve significant policy-making discretion to the executive: from the Attorney-General to agencies such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Whether or not this bureaucratic tendency in copyright marks a shift in focus, or simply a continuation of past trends, it certainly warrants closer attention.

Keywords: copyright law, Australia, copyright reform, anti-circumvention law, criminal law, copyright exceptions

JEL Classification: O34