Australia announces copyright law reform

After two years of industry consultations, the Australian government announced a reform to its copyright regulations to provide a more flexible framework for content access in the digital environment. The copyright law reform is in five main areas: (a) introducing a limited liability scheme for use of orphan works; (b) a new fair dealing exception for non-commercial quotation; (c) amendments to library and archives exceptions; (d) amendments to education exceptions; (e) streamlining the government’s statutory licensing scheme. The current regulations were deemed too restrictive and harmful to the consumer.