VALA2008 Session 8 Hudson

VALA2008 Invited PaperAustralia’s new flexible copyright exception: open-ended in name only?

VALA 2008 CONCURRENT SESSION 8: Intellectual Property
Wednesday 6 February 2008 15:10 – 15:40
Persistent URL: http://www.vala.org.au/vala2008-proceedings/vala2008-session-8-hudson

Emily Hudson

Senior Fellow, The University of Melbourne Law School
http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au

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Abstract

Almost a year after its introduction, many questions remain about the scope and interpretation of section 200AB of the Copyright Act 1968: the new ‘flexible’ exception for educational and cultural institutions. Unlike existing exceptions, section 200AB is drafted using a more open-ended approach, and may therefore apply to a range of activities undertaken for administrative, preservation and access purposes. But how open-ended will the exception be in practice? This presentation discusses this question, including with reference to preliminary results of a PhD project considering cultural institution law and practice in the United States and Canada, which may help identify important lessons for Australia.