-- JonathanMo - 14 Sep 2015

What is copyright?

Copyright is a form of intellectual property which, as the name suggests, is an intangible form of personal property. Intellectual property is one of those concepts whose content is familiar but which is exceedingly difficult to define. It is easy to list specific forms of intellectual property protection, but problematic to formulate some general concept around which they can all be grouped. Besides copyright, the more common forms of intellectual property include patents, trademarks, designs, and trade secrets.

Copyright is a creation of statute and there is no concept of common law rights in copyright. Copyright law is designed to protect the interests of the makers of original creative work. In Australia copyright is covered by Commonwealth legislation and the decisions of the courts. The legislative foundation for copyright in Australia is the Copyright Act 1968 (CA). The CA defines the rights of copyright holders and the kinds of creative work protected. The CA has been extensively amended in recent years to make provision for enhanced protection for computer programs (1999), the digital environment (2000), moral rights (2000), restrictions on parallel importation of copyright material (2003), and to implement the intellectual property chapter of the 2004 US-Australia free trade agreement.