Exclusive rights of copyright holders

Contributed by Annette Rubinstein and Fitzroy Legal Service and current to 1 September 2005

LITERARY, ARTISTIC, DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL WORKS (S.31)

Right to reproduce the work

The owner of copyright is the only person permitted to reproduce the work, or a substantial part of it, in material form. Reproducing the work means using it in order to make a similar, but not necessarily identical, work. This right applies to all types of works.

Converting a work into or from a digital or other material readable form is reproduction of the work (s.21(1A)). So is the conversion of a computer program from source code to object code, or vice versa, including by the process of compilation or decompilation (s.21(5)).

Right to publish the work

To publish a work means to supply reproductions of it to the public, by sale or otherwise (s.29(1)(a)). This right applies to all types of works. Publication does not need to be on a commercial scale. The sale of an object constitutes the publishing of a drawing of the plans for it, if such plans have been drawn.

Right to perform the work in public

This right applies to literary, dramatic or musical works only. Performance includes any method of presentation, including live performance, or use of a recording or film. However, a broadcast is not a public performance. Any performance given to members of the public is a performance in public, unless it is of a private or domestic nature.

Right to make an adaptation of the work

This right applies to literary, dramatic and musical works.
An adaptation of a literary work means:

• if it is not in dramatic form, a version in dramatic form;
• if it is in dramatic form, a version in nondramatic form;
• a version of a computer program which is not a reproduction of that program;
• a translation of a literary work into another language; or
• a version in which the story or action is conveyed solely or principally by means of pictures.

An adaptation of a musical work is an arrangement or transcription of it.

The copyright owner also has the exclusive right to reproduce an adaptation of the work, publish the adaptation, perform the adaptation in public, or communicate it to the public.

Right to enter into a commercial or rental agreement

This right applies to computer programs, and to other works which are embodied in sound recordings. This is the right to supply the work on a temporary basis in the course of a business for payment.

Right to communicate to the public

This applies to all types of works. It means to make the work available on-line, or to transmit the work electronically. It includes broadcasting the work, and the communication of a work on the internet, but does not include the distribution of the work in a tangible form. “To the public” means the public within or outside Australia (s.10(1)). This means that the owner of Australian copyright an control the communication of the work from Australia to an overseas audience.

SOUND RECORDINGS AND FILMS (S.85, S.86)

Right to make a copy of the sound recording or film

The copy must reproduce the actual sounds or images contained in the sound recording or film, not merely resemble them. As a result, a shot by shot remake of a film does not infringe copyright in the original film (although it may infringe copyright in its screenplay).

Right to cause the sound recording or film to be heard or seen in public, or to communicate it to the public

See discussion of these rights in the section dealing with literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, above.

Right to enter a commercial rental arrangement

This right applies to sound recordings, but not to films. See the discussion in the section dealing with literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, above.

TELEVISION AND SOUND BROADCASTS (S.87)

The owner of copyright in broadcasts has the exclusive right to:

• make a film or recording of the broadcast, or a copy of such a film or recording; and
• rebroadcast the broadcast.

PUBLISHED EDITIONS (S.88)

The owner of the copyright in a published edition of a work has the exclusive right to make a facsimile copy (in other words, an exact copy) of the edition.