Churches and ministry organisations should be aware of the new copyright laws that will be in force from 1 January next year. This new laws have some useful and not so useful provisions. To offset some new criminal penalties, new "use' provisions and various exceptions to infringement will be introduced into the Copyright Act to appease users. One of these new exceptions in particular, will be useful for Christian advertising.
Some of the provisions relevant for ministries are as follows:
1. Time-shifting and Format-shifting exceptions
Common practices such as time-shifting and format shifting of copyright works will now be permitted. Consumers will now be allowed to reproduce musical works from their CDs to their iPods or other digital music players for some permitted personal use (as long as they own the original CD). Consumers will also be allowed to record television programs and watch them at more convenient times.
Contrary to common community practices, the current Copyright Act does not provide consumers with these rights in relation to musical works, or other works protected by copyright.
2. Parody or Satire exception
The new laws will also contain a new exception for parody and satire, to further harmonise Australian copyright law with US copyright law. This parody and satire exception appears in the new ‘use’ provisions, which are not fair dealing defences. Therefore, fair dealing considerations regarding attribution, quantity taken, or source of materials are not relevant to this new exception.
What is a ‘parody or satire’ is not defined in the legislation and will be a matter for interpretation by the Courts. Based on parody use in the US, it is likely that church use of copyright works for the purpose of a christian message (for example, church bulletin boards, posters etc) or advertising for christian events would be covered by this exception. However, note that trade mark laws do not have this exception, so churches should still be careful using corporate logos or names in christian advertising.
3. New enforcement provisions " including on the spot fines.
The Bill also includes new enforcement provisions to deal with online piracy. The Bill creates a three-tiered scheme of indictable, summary and strict liability offences for each of the existing criminal offences under the Copyright Act.
There are also provisions for on the spot fines, to give police more options to prosecute copyright offences. The most relevant offence for churches and youth groups is playing a film or CD ‘in public’. As I noted in my earlier article, it is unlikely that a church would be sued for this conduct, but with these new enforcement options, we may start seeing on the spot fines being issued " including against ministry organisations.
Another interesting feature of the new laws is the new definition of ‘place of public entertainment’. This term is now defined as including ‘premises that are from time to time made available for hire for purposes of public entertainment’. This definition makes it clear that for some church halls that are hired out, any music or films played there will definitely fall within the ‘to the public’ rights of owners. On the other hand, church buildings themselves that are not generally hired out, may not fall within the ‘to the public’ right.
The new copyright laws highlight the continuing tension between the rights of copyright owners against the rights of users. On the one hand, there are severe criminal provisions for each of the offences in the Bill that will assist copyright owners to enforce their rights. These penalties, linked with a more flexible offence regime, will also assist police to prosecute copyright offences.
On the other hand, the new ‘uses’ exceptions and format-shifting provisions represent a significant shift towards user interests, which is good news. For churches, the new laws are a reminder that we should continue to be vigilant regarding the use of third party copyright works as we seek to serve the Lord Jesus.
Karen Gettens
