Format-shifting provisions under review

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 24 January 2008 10:22

Opinion and Analysis

The operation of legislation allowing certain format-shifting activities of movies and photographs is under review.

The Copyright Amendment Act 2006 made allowance for the reproduction of photographs and "cinematograph films" (I'll refer to them as movies from here on, but the definition is not restricted to ) for private use in certain circumstances, but required a review of these provisions by March 31, 2008. Consequently, the Attorney-General is seeking submissions on the matter by February 29, 2008.

The issues paper, which contains instructions for lodging submissions, is available from the Attorney-General's Department. I'd encourage Australian readers to make their opinions known to our legislators.

The 2006 amendment provided a wider exemption for the private copying of sound recordings, and one possible outcome of the review is that the provisions for photos and movies may be put on a similar footing.

The owner (who is not also the copyright holder) of a photograph is currently allowed to make a single copy of a photograph, but only when making a digital copy of a print, or a print from a digital image. If the object is to transfer a digitised image to a portable player or a digital photo frame, any temporary copy created on a personal computer (eg as a result of scanning the original) must be deleted more or less immediately.

The objective of the exemption for movies was primarily to allow people who had purchased content on VHS to make a digital copy on a DVD or stored on a hard disk to allow ongoing use. Digital to digital copying was not sanctioned by the 2006 amendment. So while it's OK to transfer a movie from VHS to an iPod, you're not supposed to copy the same movie from a DVD.

In contrast, digital to digital copying of music is permitted and so, as the issues paper points out, "a person who purchases a music album embodied in a CD may make several copies for playing on their personal computer, their portable MP3 player or their car's sound system."