Copyright law provides mechanisms by which creators and other copyright owners can maintain control over their work. The system is designed to provide creators with adequate incentives to create and disseminate new content. It also facilitates various uses of copyright material. These include collective licensing arrangements that are voluntary or, in some public interest circumstances, mandatory. Public interest exceptions enable some uses of copyright material without the copyright owner’s permission.
The value of licensing through collecting societies
A significant portion of the economic contribution attributable to copyright takes the form of direct licensing arrangements between copyright owners and users.
Australia’s copyright arrangements also include collecting societies. These bodies collect fees from licensing arrangements that allow large volumes of copyright material to be put to various uses and distribute the fees to the owners of the creative works.
Educational institutions, governments and businesses commonly rely on collective licensing to access copyright material.
The annual reports of collecting societies provide insight into the scale at which copyright material is used and the returns provided to creative workers. In 2023–24:
- $630 million in Australian royalties were paid to music industry rights holders by the Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society, together known as APRA AMCOS.1
- $107 million was allocated to more than 22,000 rights holders, including writers, artists, publishers and agents by the Copyright Agency. Collective licensing by the Copyright Agency also indirectly benefits other creative industries workers, such as writers and illustrators working in-house or with contractual entitlements to a share of the Copyright Agency’s payments.2
- $48.4 million was distributed by the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia to its members, including recording artists and record labels,3 and
- $50.1 million was the Distributable Amount available for distribution to relevant rightsholders in the audio-visual sector – such as producers, directors, broadcasters and agents – by Screenrights.4
Copyright infringement and enforcement
In general, copyright is infringed when someone:
- does one of the exclusive acts reserved to the copyright owner without that owner's permission, or
- does certain things (such as selling, importing, hiring out or exhibiting) with items that were made in a way that infringed copyright.
Examples of copyright infringement could include downloading music, TV shows or movies from the internet, photocopying a book, or making a recording of a live performance, without permission and/or paying to do so.
Copyright infringement may harm Australia's creative ecosystem and broader economy by reducing or diverting income that creators of and investors in original material rely on for their financial sustainability.
Copyright owners need to be able to take reasonable steps to protect and enforce their rights as part of a well-functioning copyright system. To this end, the current system includes a range of enforcement mechanisms (including industry-driven and statute-based mechanisms) to address unauthorised uses of copyright material. These include:
- copyright owners (or representatives) approaching alleged infringers directly (for example, direct communication such as a 'cease and desist' letter, seeking the rectification of an alleged infringement)
- copyright owners negotiating with other industry participants to enter into voluntary partnerships or other agreed-upon actions to address particular forms of infringement
- copyright owners taking legal action through the courts, or parties utilising mediation, alternative dispute resolution and other non-court remedies in the first instance to resolve disputes
- the website blocking scheme, which allows for the blocking of overseas websites that are available to Australian consumers, which have the primary purpose or primary effect of infringing or facilitating an infringement of copyright, and
- statutory notice and take-down procedures.
In addition, the Copyright Act also allows copyright owners to take legal action against someone who does things to circumvent technological protection measures (technical tools designed to prevent copyright infringement, such as IP blocking based on location) used to protect their material without being able to rely on a relevant exception.
At the same time, it is important that consumers, service providers and other businesses are clear about when they can use copyright materials and in what circumstances.
Endnotes
- Australasian Performing Right Association Limited, Annual Financial Report 30 June 2024; Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society Limited, Annual Financial Report 30 June 2024.
- Copyright Agency Limited, Copyright Agency Annual Report for Parliament for the year ended 30 June 2024, 2024.
- Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA), Annual Report 2024, 2024.
- Screenrights, Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2024, 2024.