Digital copyright law under review after Optus court win

By Dan Harrison and Richard Willingham

A day after the bosses of Australia's biggest sports lobbied the Prime
Minister, Julia Gillard, and senior ministers for urgent changes to
copyright law, the government has announced that it has ordered a
review of the copyright law in the digital environment.
Attorney-General Nicola Roxon this morning said that she had
commissioned the Australian Law Reform Commission to conduct the
review. She said it had been in the planning for some time but its
announcement today was timely.
The review will be conducted by Professor Jill McKeough of the
University of Technology, Sydney.
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Ms Roxon said Professor McKeough had expertise in intellectual
property, consumer protection and commercial law which made her
''eminently qualified'' to lead the review.
She said the inquiry would consider whether the exceptions in the
Federal Copyright Act were ''adequate and appropriate in the fast
paced digital environment''.
''In our fast changing, technologically driven world, it's important
to ensure our copyright laws are keeping pace with change,'' she said.
''The Gillard government is determined to get the balance right
between providing incentives for creators and innovators and
encouraging new opportunities within a digital economy including via
the National Broadband Network'', she said.
Ms Roxon said draft terms of reference for the review would be
released for consultation shortly.

Yesterday, the chiefs of Australia's biggest sporting codes used their
considerable clout to push for copyright law changes following a court
ruling allowing Optus to broadcast delayed video of matches on its
mobile phone network.
Last week, Optus won a landmark copyright case in the Federal Court,
when the court ruled the telco could record and transmit free-to-air
television coverage of football and cricket matches over the internet
to its customers.
The AFL, NRL and Telstra were seeking an injunction against Optus's TV
Now service, that allowed Optus to transmit TV footage - such as live
football matches - on delays of one to two minutes to Apple mobile
devices.
The decision infuriated Telstra and sports with exclusive broadcast
rights deals.
The chief executives of the AFL, Cricket Australia, NRL and Tennis
Australia yesterday met the Communications Minister, Senator Stephen
Conroy, the Sports Minister, Mark Arbib, and Ms Roxon, to propose a
''simple'' amendment to the copyright act.
Ms Gillard, ''stopped by the meeting'', her spokesman said, which
included the AFL chief executive, Andrew Demetriou, the Cricket
Australia chief, James Sutherland, and the NRL boss, David Gallop.
At a press conference this morning, Ms Gillard said the government was
considering whether or not there needed to be changes to the copyright
laws.
''We have said to them [sporting bodies] . . . that we will urgently
consider options here. I think we are all concerned what this can mean
for our great sporting codes and it was an unexpected development,''
Ms Gillard said.
Senator Conroy said the government was being briefed by the legal
teams from the sporting groups.
''We will be going through a process to ensure that if any change is
to be made that we would consider any adverse consequences, but at
this stage we are just getting the legal advice fully explained to us
and we are happy to consider if a solution is available,'' Senator
Conroy said.
The sports, with netball, rugby and soccer, form the Coalition of
Major Professional and Participation Sports and it also met Opposition
Leader Tony Abbott's chief-of-staff, Peta Credlin, to seek bi-partisan
support.
Executive director Malcolm Speed said the group wanted to clarify a
provision in the copyright act for sports to maintain the right to
exclusively sell their digital content to broadcasters.
He said lawyers representing the sports and the government would meet
to thrash out details. Mr Gallop said the sports wanted to show they
were united in their need for a ''quick but simple'' amendment to
copyright laws.
''It is clear that the technology has overtaken the law, the previous
changes to the act were already expressed to protect the interest of
copyright-holders and this development and the court decision
supporting it, flies in the face of that,'' he said.
Mr Gallop said the group received a good hearing and the outcome was
constructive, from both sides of politics.
''We are dealing with a situation where an asset on our balance sheet,
being copyright of our content, has been transferred to another
company's balance sheet without our consent, that cannot be right and
needs to be fixed quickly,'' Mr Gallop said.
It is understood the amendments would not remove the right for people
to tape content from their TVs for replay.
The AFL last year signed a five-year rights deal worth $1.25 billion,
including a $153 million deal with Telstra, and the NRL are to
negotiate a new deal soon.
TV rights is the main source of revenue for both codes, something Mr
Gallop said the group made clear during the meetings.
It is understood the government is taking the issue very seriously. Ms
Roxon's spokesman last night said the government had considered both
the rights of consumers and content producers, while also ''working to
maintain a sustainable legal framework that accommodates the
innovative digital environment''.

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