Australia's Digital Agenda Review Overshadowed By FTA

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

29 April 2004

A review of Australia's digital copyright laws has been released, but the recently concluded bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the United States have cast doubts on the way forward for internet service providers (ISPs).

The Digital Agenda Review (DAR), conducted by legal firm Phillips Fox, discusses the implications of the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act of 2000, and suggests that an industry code should be created in order to address the uncertainty surrounding the obligations of ISPs following the receipt of take-down notices on copyright infringing content.

Speaking to News.com.au, chief executive of the Internet Industry Association, Peter Coroneos revealed that the IIA had been in the process of developing such a code of conduct, but that the signing of the FTA with the United States had stalled the project.

"We're still keen to finalise a code, but unfortunately the FTA tended to distract everyone from what was happening in Australia," he told the Australian news service, adding that:

"(Phillips Fox) had a timeline that they had to meet, but I think everyone's pretty clearly of the view that the FTA trumps the DAR, so in a sense it wouldn't matter what the DAR concludes, if the FTA concludes otherwise, that's what the government has bound itself to implement."

The IIA chief executive expressed the hope that the Australian government will choose to go down the code of conduct route rather than taking a legislative approach to the treatment of take-down notices, and suggested that, despite the nature of the FTA, there may still be room for a "somewhat customised approach".

"If that's correct, then we become players again in terms of code development," he observed.

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