Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Copyright Australia'

Available via the Australian National University Library Electronic Pre and Post Print Repository. Title from title screen (viewed Mar. 28, 2003) Includes bibliographical references. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

'Moral rights' should not be thought of as a system of ethical or moral principles, rather, they are personal rights of the author of a literary, artistic, musical or like work which proponents of moral rights protection argue arise from the intimate bond between the author of such a work and the work itself. Focus in the common law countries has always been on the economic rights associated with a copyright work and how those economic rights could be best protected and exploited by the copyright owner: 'The common law, however, has always placed more emphasis on the preservation of property interests than on some intangible concept like personality rights which are difficult to calculate in economic terms. The common law has always been more utilitarian and pragmatic in nature than its European counterparts. The legal rights of individuals are protected negatively - that is, you have a compensatory remedy rather than rights per se. ' 1 Within the Australian legal system the economic rights are the exclusive rights contained in section 31 of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and include the right to reproduce the work, publish the work, make a broadcast, make an adaptation of the work (among others). The focus on economic rights is reflected in the ultimate form which the Copyright Act has taken in Australia. That is, the Act affords substantial opportunities to the copyright owner to exploit the work with concomitant protection of those economic or pecuniary rights. By contrast, however, there is minimal protection offered to any moral or personal rights that the original creator of the work may claim to possess. For many moral rights advocates, the call for legislative protection of moral rights has been premised on the basis that a balance between economic rights and moral rights does not currently exist within the copyright field. The opponents of legislative protection allege that the introduction of moral rights would unduly upset the current system, posing threatening implications for investors in the culture industries. 2 This is the environment in Australia in which the moral rights debate has developed. Initially moral rights were seen as being essentially a foreign or alien concept to the system of copyright law in Australia. The past twenty years has seen an increasing focus upon moral rights by the artistic industries, legal academics, the Copyright Law Review Committee and various government bodies. Moral rights have been given some form of recognition and protection in over sixty countries in the world. Even the well-spring of Australian law, that being the English legal system, has enacted legislation which not only recognises moral rights but provides protection for these rights. In addition, other countries with a common law heritage such as Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Nigeria have similarly enacted some form of protection for moral rights.3 Despite this, Australia since becoming a member State of the Berne Convention in 1928 has consistently refused to enact laws which specifically recognise moral rights and provide legislative protection for these rights. Despite the change in views of countries such as New Zealand4 and the United Kingdom5 , Australia has remained somewhat isolationist in its persistence in refusing to provide specific protection for moral rights. It appears, however, that the winds of change have been gaining increasing force in Australia, particularly within the last five years. This dissertation will define and analyse the concept of 'moral rights'. The nature of moral rights, including the rights of attribution, the right of integrity, the right of divulgation (disclosure) and the right of withdrawal, will be considered. The history of the moral rights debate in Australia will be discussed including Australia's obligations as a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works ("the Berne Convention") will be considered. The experience of other common law jurisdictions in recognising moral rights and the means adopted to protect moral rights and the efficacy of the means of protection selected will also be examined. This paper will focus upon the question whether moral rights are sufficiently protected within the Australian legal system by the present framework of various common law causes of action and statutory provisions contained in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) and the various State Fair Trading Acts.6 The case for and against greater recognition and protection of moral rights will be examined. In 1994 the Attorney­General's Department published a discussion paper which recommended the introduction of specific moral rights protection in Australia via amendments to the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).7 The recommendations of the Discussion Paper will be considered as will recent developments in the moral rights debate in Australia. This paper concludes that there has been insufficient recognition and protection of moral rights within the Australian legal system. The combination of common law causes of action and statutory provisions in the Australian legal system, in the absence of specific legislative provisions protecting moral rights, are not sufficient to comply with Australia's treaty obligations under Article 6bis of the Berne Convention. There is an unmet need for greater recognition and protection of moral rights within the Australian legal system and this paper recommends this occur via amendments to the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) to incorporate specific provisions protecting moral rights.

Thesis (LLM)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
Includes bibliography
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis analyses current South African copyright law to ascertain the proper interpretation and application of the fair dealing provisions contained in the Copyright Act 98 of 1978. Copyright law ensures that authors’ works are not used without their consent, which they can grant subject to compensation or conditions attached to the use. Fair dealing exceptions allow the general public to use copyright works for certain purposes without the copyright owner’s consent and without paying compensation. These provisions are intended to balance copyright owners’ interests with the interest that members of the public have in using copyright works for socially beneficial purposes. These provisions typically allow the use of a copyright work for the purposes of research or private study, personal or private use, criticism and review, and news reporting. Unfortunately there is no South African case law concerning the fair dealing provisions, and the application of these exceptions remains unclear. This study aims to clarify the extent of application of the fair dealing exceptions to copyright infringement so that courts may be more willing to consider foreign and international law and in doing so develop South African intellectual property law. The social and economic policy considerations underlying the fair dealing exceptions are considered to determine their function. International conventions relating to copyright and neighbouring rights are examined, specifically the provisions allowing exceptions to copyright. The legislation and case law of Australia and the United Kingdom are analysed to determine the proper interpretation and application of these statutory defences. This knowledge is then used to inform South African law. The Copyright Act 98 of 1978 does not contain a fair dealing exception for parody and satire. Australian legislation does contain such an exception, and it is analysed in that context. An exception for parody is proposed for South African law, and the need for and application of this provision is considered. The constitutionality of the proposed exception is evaluated in terms of its impact on the constitutional property rights of copyright owners.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek Suid-Afrikaanse outeursreg om die behoorlike uitleg en toepassing van die “billike gebruik”-bepalings in die Wet op Outeursreg 98 van 1978 te bepaal. Outeursreg beskerm die werk van ʼn outeur teen ongemagtigde gebruik van haar intellektuele eiendom. Gebruik kan deur die outeur gemagtig word, òf teen vergoeding òf onderhewig aan bepaalde voorwaardes. Artikels 12-19B (die billike gebruik-bepalings) van die Wet op Outeursreg laat ander toe om sekere werke te gebruik sonder die toestemming van die eienaar van die werk en sonder om vergoeding te betaal. Die bepalings streef om ʼn balans te tref tussen die belange van die outeur en die belange van die publiek. ʼn Werk mag volgens hierdie bepalings tipies gebruik word vir die doeleindes van navorsing of private studie, persoonlike of private gebruik, beoordeling of resensie, of om nuus te rapporteer. Daar is tans geen Suid-Afrikaanse regspraak rakende hierdie uitsonderings nie, en hul toepassing is dus onseker. Hierdie tesis beoog om die werking van die billike gebruik-bepalings duidelik uiteen te sit om hoër gewilligheid in howe te skep om internasionale en buitelandse reg toe te pas, en sodoende Suid-Afrikaanse immateriële goederereg te ontwikkel. Die sosiale en ekonomiese beleidsoorwegings wat die bepalings ondersteun word geanaliseer om die doel daarvan te bepaal. Internasionale outeursreg-verdragte word bespreek om ʼn raamwerk vir die uitsonderings te skep. Wetgewing en regspraak van Australië en die Verenigde Koninkryk word ondersoek, en die kennis wat daar opgedoen word, word toegepas op die Suid-Afrikaanse bepalings. Die Wet op Outeursreg 98 van 1978 bevat geen uitsondering vir die doeleindes van parodie en satire nie. Die Australiese Wet op Outeursreg 63 van 1968 bevat wel so ʼn uitsondering, en dit word in hierdie verband beoordeel. ʼn Uitsondering vir parodie en satire word voorgestel en oorweeg in die konteks van Suid-Afrikaanse outeursreg. Die grondwetlikheid van die voorgestelde uitsondering word bepaal na aanleiding van die impak wat dit sal hê op outeurs se eiendomsreg.

The exceptions for individual use give rise to interesting and fundamental concerns drawing both international and national attention. There is uncertainty in the application of the individual use exceptions both in the international copyright treaties, particularly the three-step test of the Berne Convention, and in the national copyright legislation. To have a better understanding of this concerns, this thesis aims to: investigate whether the exceptions for individual use can still maintain the balance of interests between the copyright holders and users; analyse the contribution that international copyright agreements and national copyright legislation may have made to assist in solving the conflict of interest between right holder countries and user countries in applying the exceptions for individual use; and conduct a comparative study of the application of the individual use exceptions in developed and developing countries. The understandings that are found within this study are informed by relevant literature and by analysis of the application of the individual use exceptions. The thesis examines the application of the individual use exceptions in the international copyright treaties, namely, the Berne Convention, the TRIPS Agreement, and the WIPO Copyright Treaty in order to determine the appropriate ?balance? between the rights of owners and users in the three-step test. To explore the uncertainty in the individual use exceptions at the national level, a comparative case study is made between the exceptions for individual use in Australia, a developed country, and Thailand, a developing country. The results of the study reveal three major answers. First, the exceptions for individual use are able to still maintain the balance of interest between right holders and users in the digital environment, if some amendments are made to keep pace with the digital environment. Secondly, to assist in the solution to the conflict of interest between right holder countries and user countries in applying the exceptions for individual use, the international copyright agreements can make a contribution by making some minor changes, mainly in the three-step test of the Berne Convention, and by continuing to provide special treatments for developing countries. Nationally, the contribution may be made by thoroughly protecting the right holders whilst also still allowing individual use by amending the copyright legislation to update to the digital age when necessary, enacting the relevant Acts, and establishing a collecting society. Finally, from the comparison of the application of the exceptions for individual use as well as problems found and solutions proposed in developed and developing countries, in which Australia and Thailand are used as case studies, the comparison of the application of the exceptions for individual use can be divided into four categories: fair use exceptions (Australian fair dealing and Thai private use exceptions), free use exceptions, licences (Australian statutory licences and Thai compulsory licence), and limitation of legislative individual use provisions. In addition, the problem of different interpretations of the exceptions for individual use, the problem of conformity in the application of the exceptions for individual use according to the real purpose of the three-step test, which exists in Thailand, and the problem of response to the digital environment are all used as the frame for the comparison of the problems found and proposed solutions. The findings of the study are significant as they can provide contributions to the copyright areas primarily in the legal aspect: amendment of the exceptions for individual use. In addition, they also contribute to the related aspect in the copyright areas: the economic aspect: the balance between developed and developing Countries; and the moral aspect: developing countries? development. In addition, the thesis proposes four useful recommendations to enable the balance of interest between the right holders and the users to be maintained: amendment of the wording in the three-step test of the Berne Convention, amendment of domestic copyright law and its exceptions for individual use, encouragement of the role of collective management organisations, and raising public awareness on the issue of copyright and its exceptions for individual use.

This thesis examines the development of copyright and patent protection in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia and proposes that intellectual property is not the correct mechanism for protecting computer software. Both copyright and patent protection are evaluated in relation to their application to protecting the various elements of software. The increased desire for patent protection of software in the United States has recently impacted the debate over the correct regime for intellectual property protection. There has also been a corresponding restriction in the application of copyright protection by the courts. Combined with an undercurrent of sui generis software legislation being advocated by academia this has lead to the situation where there is continuing uncertainty over which method of protection should be provided for software. It will be shown that copyright is inadequate for the protection of computer software and that it does not address the correct element requiring protection. Patents, by corollary, provide protection that is excessive. The socio-economic effects of patent protection will be shown to demonstrate that it is not a worthy successor or adjunct to copyright. While copyright has attempted to protect one aspect (source code) patents have attempted to protect another (functionality). The thesis identifies the fundamental flaws in the protection offered by both regimes and proposes that they are equally unsuitable for the protection of software. Software will be shown to possess a diverse array of elements that are largely indivisible if adequate protection is to be provided. It is proposed that software be considered as a new form of property, referred to as Binary property, which covers informational and information processing entities. Further, the existing common law principles should be applied to the aspects that are at the heart of the intellectual property protection dilemma. In reality the elements requiring protection in software are activities that wrongfully duplicate a work or replicate it to create clones. It will be shown that the common law principles of theft, trespass, breach of contract and passing-off are suitable for protecting developers from these infringements. It will also be contended that any legislative intervention should be limited so that a certain degree of replication is allowable where there is a benefit to society through technological advancement or enhancement through standardisation. As such the application of common law principles are applied in a minimalist legalistic environment. The minimalist approach takes the position that there should be minimal legislative intervention in the computer industry. It proposes that there should be legislative intervention to enable the existing common law to take account of computer technology and provide for its continuing impact on society that will accelerate into the next millennium. It further shows that the continuing development of computer technology will outpace intellectual property necessitating the recognition of computer software as a unique form of new property in existing jurisprudence. The application of existing common law principles of property and the reduction in the monopolistic nature of intellectual property will not only benefit the highly dynamic and creative international computer industry but it will also be in the best interests of the Australian software development industry.

This thesis identifies Australia’s place in the worldwide recorded music industries and seeks the reasons behind the delays of launches in Australia of online music services. It concludes that while there is no clear cut answer to this question, there is considerable tension between the parties involved and a clear opportunity for the review of Australia’s copyright law. Constantly shifting and dynamic, the recorded music industries in Australia and worldwide have been in a state of flux since the turn of the millennium and the democratisation of music distribution.

The thesis is an exploration of how indigenous knowledge has emerged as a subject within Australian intellectual property law. It uses the context of copyright law to illustrate this development. The work presents an analysis of the political, social and cultural intersections that influence legal possibilities and effect practical expectations of the law in this area. The dilemma of protecting indigenous knowledge resonates with tensions that characterise intellectual property as a whole. The metaphysical dimensions of intellectual property have always been insecure but these difficulties come to the fore with the identification of boundaries and markers that establish property in indigenous subject matter. While intellectual property law is always managing difference, the politics of law are more transparent when managing indigenous concerns. Rather than assume the naturalness of the category of indigenous knowledge within law, this work interrogates the politics of its construction precisely as a ???special??? category. Employing a multidisciplinary methodology, engaging theories of governmental rationality that draws upon the scholarship of Michel Foucault to appreciate strategies of managing and directing knowledge, the thesis considers how the politics of law is infused by cultural, political, bureaucratic and individual factors. Key elements in Australia that have pushed the law to consider expressions of indigenous knowledge in intellectual property can be located in changing political environments, governmental intervention through strategic reports, cultural sensitivity articulated in case law and innovative instances of individual agency. The intersection of these elements reveals a dynamic that exerts influence in the shape the law takes.

This thesis investigates the problems associated with the development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). The results of this investigation are used as input for the development of new spatial data policy strategies for individual organisations to enable an improved better facilitation of SDIs. Policy issues that need to be considered by an organisation when developing spatial data policies, were identified as being: SDI requirements; organisational issues; technical issues; Governmental/organisational duties; ownership/custodianship; privacy and confidentiality; legal liability, contracts and licences; Intellectual Property Law; economic analysis; data management; outreach, cooperation and political mandate; and users' choices, rights and obligations. In order to gain an understanding of current spatial data policy practices and to device new policy strategies a spatial data survey was conducted. This survey addressed the identified SDI problem areas. Some 6630 questionnaires were mailed out with more than 400 responses returned. These were reduced to 379 useful responses. Once analysed, the results were compared with the findings of the SDI investigation and used throughout the thesis. The results of the analysis to the spatial data survey are displayed in tables and graphs throughout Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 and in Appendix 2. The tables and graphs show the answers to the questions asked in the questionnaire as a percentage of the total number of respondents. The survey discovered that many organisations had no spatial data policies, nor individual policies on spatial data pricing and/or intellectual property protection. This thesis established that SDI requirements are not being met by many spatial data policies used by individual organisations. Hence, the thesis studied the spatial data policy issues that are involved when an organisation develops new policies with the aim to aid the development of SDIs. It uniquely established current Australian spatial data policy practices in the areas of spatial data quality, access, pricing, and legal issues to form the basis for future strategies. It reviewed the current knowledge of intellectual property law applied to spatial data and devised new approaches to deal with all the identified policy issues. Finally, the thesis defines spatial data policies that facilitate SDI development.

This thesis is a history of moral rights in Australian law. It traces the historical discourse about moral rights in Australian law and demonstrates how that discourse has shaped the meaning moral rights have come to assume in their current form under the current regime contained in the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rijghts) Act 2000. This history examines the reception and later production of a moral rights discourse in Australian law, and reveals that the historical discourse about Australian moral rights was dominated by the three themes; foreignness, international obligation and economic impact. I contend these three themes fundamentally shaped moral rights as they now appear in the moral rights regime. As the history unfolds, it will become clear that the moral rights regime was organised around a specific repertoire of arguments and imaginings, and it is this discourse that informs this thesis. My argument is pursued in three stages. Section One of the thesis provides the historical detail of the moral rights trajectory in Australian jurisprudence, and reveals, within that history, the emergence of three dominant themes, which are pursued in subsequent detail. In addition to the history, this section also provides detailed discussion of the legislative provisions in order to illustrate moral rights as a product of the history, and it highlights some of the shortcomings of the regime and provides some background for the case study in Section Two. Section Two of the thesis interrogates the structure of the moral rights regime by applying the Act's provisions to the case study of indigenous creators, thus providing a contemporary example of how these rights may work in practice, as the result of the historical discourse. Thus this section sets the scene for final part of the thesis, which delves further into the historical discourse. Section Part Three follows the themes of the moral rights debate as they emerged historically. Reconceptualizing the moral rights discourse in this way helps to explain why the debates about moral rights took a particular course and produced the outcomes it did. The starting point for these discussions is a detailed examination of the themes of foreignness, international obligation and economic impact, and follows these themes as they evolved chronologically. In particular, the discussion reveals that the debates about moral rights effectively fall into two eras. The first era (1928-1988) centred around the question of whether Australia should introduce moral rights and the debates about the appropriateness of the reception. At the commencement of the second era (1988-2000) the question shifted to what form moral rights should take. This then provides a backdrop with which to understand why specific discussions about moral rights were sidelined during the years of debates leading up to the legislation; in particular, the subject and the object; which form the fulcrum of a moral rights action. This is an essential part of the history because it explains why the subject and the object came to be imagined and constructed in such a narrow and limited way and clarifies why the moral rights provisions appear manifestly ineffective, particularly for indigenous creators and their communities. This thesis contributes to legal history in three important ways. First, it provides a detailed account of a discourse about moral rights in Australian law, and in doing so challenges the long held assumptions about their reception and production. Second, it highlights the importance of history to legal discourse. Just as regulatory regimes, institutions, and rules are integral to the law, so too are the informal practices, discourses and contexts on which they were based. Third, it reminds the reader that history is a signpost, and this history of moral rights demonstrates that the way this law was derived, imagined and constructed has significance for the social, cultural and legal context in which that process takes place.

Indigenous cultural possessions constitute a diverse global issue. This issue includes some culturally important, intangible tribal objects. This is evident in the Australian copyright cases viewed in this study, which provide examples of disputes over traditional Indigenous visual art. A proposal for the legal recognition of Indigenous cultural possessions in Australia is also reviewed, in terms of a new category of law. When such cultural objects are in an artistic form they constitute the tribe's self-presentation and its mechanism of cultural continuity. Philosophical arguments for the legal recognition of Indigenous intellectual `property' tend to assume that the value of Indigenous intellectual property is determinable on external criteria.

Western intellectual property frameworks have at least one feature in common: performers are less protected than authors. This situation knows many justifications, although all but one have been dismissed by the literature: performers are simply less creative than authors. As a result, the legal protection covering their work has been proportionally reduced compared to that of their authorial peers. This thesis investigates this phenomenon that it calls the 'author-performer divide'. It uncovers the culturally-rooted principles and legal reasoning that policy-makers and judges of Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States have developed to create in the legal narrative a hierarchy between authors and performers. It reveals that those intellectual property systems, though continuously reformed, still contain outdated conceptions of creativity based on the belief in ex nihilo creation and over-intellectualised representations of the creative process. Those two precepts combined have led legal discourse to portray performers as their authors' puppets, thus underserving of authorship themselves. This thesis reviews arguments raised against improving the performers' regime to challenge the preconception of performers as uncreative agents and questions the divide it supports. To this end, it seeks to update the representations of creativity currently conveyed in the law by drawing on the findings of other academic disciplines such as creativity research, performance theories as well as music, theatre and dance studies. This comparative inter-disciplinary study aims to move current legal debates on performers' rights away from the recurring themes and repeated arguments in the scholarship such as issues of fixation or of competing claims, all of which have made conversations stagnate. By including disciplines beyond the law, this analysis seeks to advance the legal literature on the question of performers' intellectual property protection and shift thinking about performative forms of creativity.

This thesis provides a cultural history of Australian copyright law and related artistic controversies. It examines a number of disputes over authorship, collaboration, and appropriation across a variety of cultural fields. It considers legal controversies over the plagiarism of texts, the defacing of paintings, the sampling of musical works, the ownership of plays, the co-operation between film-makers, the sharing of MP3 files on the Internet, and the appropriation of Indigenous culture. Such narratives and stories relate to a broad range of works and subject matter that are protected by copyright law. This study offers an archive of oral histories and narratives of artistic creators about copyright law. It is founded upon interviews with creative artists and activists who have been involved in copyright litigation and policy disputes. This dialogical research provides an insight into the material and social effects of copyright law. This thesis concludes that copyright law is not just a ‘creature of statute’, but it is also a social and imaginative construct. In the lived experience of the law, questions of aesthetics and ethics are extremely important. Industry agreements are quite influential. Contracts play an important part in the operation of copyright law. The media profile of personalities involved in litigation and policy debates is pertinent. This thesis claims that copyright law can be explained by a mix of social factors such as ethical standards, legal regulations, market forces, and computer code. It can also be understood in terms of the personal stories and narratives that people tell about litigation and copyright law reform. Table of Contents Prologue 1 Introduction A Creature of Statute: Copyright Law and Legal Formalism 6 Chapter One The Demidenko Affair: Copyright Law and Literary Works 33 Chapter Two Daubism: Copyright Law and Artistic Works 67 Chapter Three The ABCs of Anarchism: Copyright Law and Musical Works 105 Chapter Four Heretic: Copyright Law and Dramatic Works 146 Chapter Five Shine: Copyright Law and Film 186 Chapter Six Napster: Infinite Digital Jukebox or Pirate Bazaar? Copyright Law and Digital Works 232 Chapter Seven Bangarra Dance Theatre: Copyright Law and Indigenous Culture 275 Chapter Eight The Cathedral and the Bazaar: The Future of Copyright Law 319

Indigenous cultural possessions constitute a diverse global issue. This issue includes some culturally important, intangible tribal objects. This is evident in the Australian copyright cases viewed in this study, which provide examples of disputes over traditional Indigenous visual art. A proposal for the legal recognition of Indigenous cultural possessions in Australia is also reviewed, in terms of a new category of law. When such cultural objects are in an artistic form they constitute the tribe's self-presentation and its mechanism of cultural continuity. Philosophical arguments for the legal recognition of Indigenous intellectual `property' tend to assume that the value of Indigenous intellectual property is determinable on external criteria.

While much has been written on the Australian film and television industry, little has been presented by actual producers, filmmakers and technicians of their time and experiences within that same industry. Similarly, with historical documentaries, it has been academics rather than filmmakers who have led the debate. This thesis addresses this shortcoming and bridges the gap between practitioner experience and intellectual discussion, synthesising the debate and providing an important contribution from a filmmaker-academic, in its own way unique and insightful. The thesis is presented in two voices. First, my voice, the voice of memoir and recollected experience of my screen adventures over 38 years within the Australian industry, mainly producing historical documentaries for the ABC and the SBS. This is represented in italics. The second half and the alternate chapters provide the industry framework in which I worked with particular emphasis on documentaries and how this evolved and developed over a 40-year period, from 1970 to 2010. Within these two voices are three layers against which this history is reviewed and presented. Forming the base of the pyramid is the broad Australian film industry made up of feature films, documentary, television drama, animation and other types and styles of production. Above this is the genre documentary within this broad industry, and making up the small top tip of the pyramid, the sub-genre of historical documentary. These form the vertical structure within which industry issues are discussed. Threading through it are the duel determinants of production: ‘the market’ and ‘funding’. Underpinning the industry is the involvement of government, both state and federal, forming the three dimensional matrix for the thesis. For over 100 years the Australian film industry has depended on government support through subsidy, funding mechanisms, development assistance, broadcast policy and legislative provisions. This thesis aims to weave together these industry layers, binding them with the determinants of the market and funding, and immersing them beneath layers of government legislation and policy to present a new view of the Australian film industry.

The Australian music industry is growing and developing yet specific information about the ways in which distribution systems develop is limited. In this study I examined the growth and change of the Australian music value chain. This includes the development of digital distribution systems and the effect that peer-to-peer technology has on system development, specifically the disintermediation between consumers and artists to the detriment of the multinational value chains. The drivers of this change are broken into social and technical elements in order to describe the growth and change occurring. The method used included a comprehensive literature review and use of secondary data from key music industry associations. The Australian music industry is a subset of the global industry and is led by foreign markets and their methods in which music content moves from the creators to the consumers. The consumption patterns of Australian music consumers are changing. The overall value of the music industry is dropping as the new digital downloads market emerges and the overall volume of sales increases; this reflects similar trends in foreign markets. CD single sales have dropped and digital single sales (in MP3 format) have increased. However, there needs to be a balance in the future development of Australian music distribution systems between the needs of music consumers and the sustainability of music companies, where there is both connectivity and steady revenue flow. There are technical elements that have caused a movement away from the traditional forms of music distribution as new technologies facilitate the change, such as Apple's iPod and broadband Internet connections. Advancement of distribution systems has increased piracy levels and the response has been the implementation of digital rights management (DRM), which prevents connectivity. There are also social elements that affect growth and change such as connectivity, or the consumers freedom to choose when, where and how to listen to their music. When music product has a restriction placed upon it its value to the consumer drops. Multinational music companies have failed to recognise the value users place on the freedom to pick and choose and have tried to control rather than to co-develop systems that meets both parties needs.

Australia has been at the forefront of trade-related copyright reform having, after almost a decade of debate and controversy, amended the import provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 to allow parallel imports of sound recordings. This thesis begins with an investigation of the economics of the music recording industry, encompassing the nature of demand and supply of sound recordings, profit maximising price strategies for a multi-product firm, and an investigation into the market structure and international distribution of sound recordings. This is followed by an investigation of the economics of copyright with respect to sound recordings and the evolution of international intellectual property rights law. This leads to a critical evaluation of the controversy surrounding the exhaustion of copyright and the case for copyright owner control over parallel imports.

A key policy rationale for the system of copyright is to give authors an incentive to create new works. But what if actual financial returns to authors were very poor — so poor that no rational agent could be expected to respond to the incentive? In this thesis I present data from a large sample of Australian films showing that returns are consistently poor even for ‘hit’ films. Data from other countries confirms the finding and there is evidence that returns from other forms of copyright asset such as literary works are also poor. The thesis explores how this situation can have persisted for so longwithout the system breaking down or eliciting strong protests from authors. Drawing on a survey of Australian film producers, I confirm anecdotal evidence that authors are driven by non-financial considerations as well as financial incentives. The Hollywood studios have evolved sophisticated business practices that take advantage of these non-financial motivations. In this they are following the example of London’s booksellers of the early 18th century. Does it matter that authors earn low returns from their copyright assets? Iidentify two classes of author for whom poor returns present a real obstacle to authoring — authors whose work requires independence (such as dissidents) and authors who do not have access to patronage or other forms of subsidy to offset the poor returns from copyright (such as authors from the ‘third world’). Finally, I consider possible reforms to copyright that might improve returns to authors and examine the public policy case for pursuing these reforms.

The project, All In It Together, is part one of a three-part video documentary that profiles the late Ted Bull (1914-1997). All In It Together focuses on Ted Bull's years as a waterside worker and Secretary of the Melbourne Branch of the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia (1946-1979). Various people including retired waterside workers speak of their personal experiences with Ted Bull whose life intersected key historical moments in Australia's labour history. By drawing on photographic stills and archival footage, the history of the union including its significant role in other major political movements conveys an historical and political context relevant to contemporary Australians. The accompanying exegesis outlines the process of making a video documentary that incorporates an historical focus at a time when filmmaking is more accessible. Nevertheless, ethical and technical standards associated with bringing together an edited version of historical events remain the same as for those filmmakers with access to funding and more sophisticated equipment. Video as a less expensive and more accessible medium, however remains hampered by a conservative television industry. This, combined with accessing archival material, further impacts upon the types of stories that can be told and from whose point of view. Central to these concerns is the negative stereotyping of waterside workers which has been the departure point from where others and I set out to tell a different story about the waterfront. -----Provisional title of thesis - 'The Waterfront Years'