The economic contribution of Australia's copyright industries 1996-7 to 2010-11

This Australian Copyright Council report breaks down the current copyright laws in Australia and discusses the areas that should be updated and changed in order to accommodate new forms of online publishing.In Australia, the Copyright Act 1968 gives exclusive (but limited) rights to copyright owners as to how their material may be used. These rights include the right to copy, adapt, publish, communicate to the public and publicly perform the copyright material. To balance the rights of copyright owners with the needs of the general public, the Copyright Act provides a number of exceptions to the general rules regarding infringement of copyright. infringement of copyright. The appropriate role and scope of these exceptions has been an ongoing matter for debate, appropriate role and scope of these exceptions has been an ongoing matter for debate, particularly with particularly with the advent of digital the advent of digital copying. In copying. In this context we note that the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) is undertaking a review of copyright law and the role of exceptions. Consistent Consistent with with an emerging interest an emerging interest in better understanding the size and economic contribution of those industries which rely, to varying degrees, on copyright l in better understanding the size and economic contribution of those industries which rely, to varying degrees, on copyright law, this this study uses the global framework (WIPO 2003) to document the economic contribution of Australia’s copyright industries over time. Due to data classification variations, the results presented in this report differ somewhat from previous estimates