Monday, December 11, 2006
Hmmm...
The Attorney-General has issued this press release about the Gowers Report (I've already blogged on this), rather extravagantly claiming that 'The Gowers Review in the United Kingdom has taken the same approach to copyright reform as the Australian Government in balancing the rights of consumers and creators'.
Extravagant claim? Well, yes. The government has in its comments on copyright law claimed that the 'balance' between consumers and creators is secured by the Australian government's approach to both exceptions, and to copyright criminal law. The Gowers report goes nowhere near what the Australian government has done in relation to criminal copyright laws. Ergo, we are not talking about the 'same approach'.
Insofar as there is a claim that the Gowers report is doing the 'same thing' on copyright exceptions, there are two points to note.
- First, the Gowers report goes less far in some respects (private copying of sound recordings) but further in other respects (Gowers recommended the UK support exceptions for orphan works (our government hasn't, so far) and for 'creative, transformative or derivative works' (our government didn't).
- Second, the real claim in the press release seems to be that 'The Gowers review follows the same approach to copyright exceptions adopted by the Australian Government' - reading between the lines, this must mean that Gowers recommends sticking with specific exceptions rather than going a general fair use defence. Regardless of whether you agree with fair use or not, the more important point would be that as a part of Europe, the UK has no choice on that. The EU Information Society Directive effectively precludes a general, fair use approach.
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