Safe harbours to be Extended

The Commonwealth Government introduced the Copyright Amendment (Service Providers) Bill 2017 into Parliament today.

As its name suggests the purpose of the Bill is to extend the class of persons who can claim the benefits of the safe harbour provisions in the Copyright Act 1968 provided in sections 116AA to 116AJ.

The way the amendments will work is essentially to remove the references to “carriage service provider” and replace them with a new reference to “service provider”.

For this purpose, “service provider” will be defined to mean:

116ABA Definition of service provider

(1) Each of the following is a service provider:

(a) a carriage service provider;

(b) an organisation assisting persons with a disability;

(c) the body administering a library, if:

  (i) all or part of the collection comprising the library is accessible to members of the public directly or through interlibrary loans; or

  (ii) the principal purpose of the library is to provide library services for members of a Parliament;

(d) the body administering an archives;

(e) the body administering a key cultural institution;

(f) the body administering an educational institution.

However:

(2) If a service provider is not:

(a) a carriage service provider; or

(b) an organisation assisting persons with a disability; or

(c) the body administering an educational institution, being an educational institution that is a body corporate;

this Division only applies to activities that the service provider carries out because of its relationship to the relevant library, archives, key cultural institution or educational institution mentioned in subsection (1).f you are not one of those people, you will be able to claim the benefit of the safe harbours

If your name is Google or Facebook, or you are some other provider of services inflicting user generated content on the world, you won’t qualify.

The new definition of “service provider” may be compared with the definition enshrined in the Australia – US Free Trade Agreement in Article 17.11.29(xii) (scroll down):

(xii) For the purposes of the function referred to in clause (i)(A), service provider means a provider of transmission, routing, or connections for digital online communications without modification of their content between or among points specified by the user of material of the user’s choosing,[1] and for the purposes of the functions referred to in clause (i)(B) through (D),[2] service provider means a provider or operator of facilities for online services or network access.

This is because, the Government has pointed out, copyright industries are highly valuable for Australia. Accordingly, the consultation process will continue:

In so doing, the Government will be mindful of the need to ensure the rights of creators are properly protected. Australia’s copyright framework ensures that creators can receive a fair return for their work. Australia’s copyright industries make a significant contribution to our economic and cultural life, including collectively generating approximately $122.8 billion in economic activity, $6.5 billion in exports and employing more than 1 million Australians.

Bill (pdf)

EM (pdf)

Minister’s Press Release

Other links