As technology progresses, the law needs to progress, in turn, in order to protect the public and their rights in today’s ever-changing society. The digital age has called for alterations to be made to legislation to accommodate these new facets of society as “the nature and sheer weight of the advances made in this century, and the efforts made to exploit them, have placed great pressure on the law to respond with appropriate protective regimes�. (McKeough & Stewart, 1991).
An important area of law that has been affected by the growing needs of technology is that of intellectual property and copyright. “Intellectual property is a generic term for the various rights or bundles of rights which the law accords for the protection of creative effort� (McKeough & Stewart, 1991). Copyright and Intellectual Property law has evolved in an effort to meet the growing needs of the digital age. This has been illustrated through The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and The Copyright Amendment Act 1989 (Cth), which are both pieces of Australian legislation that have incorporated the new forms of technology that are constantly being introduced and integrated into modern society. “Copyright governed by The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), protects the expression in material form of ideas or information�. (McKeough & Stewart, 1991).
Examples of the different areas of technology that are incorporated into the legal system in Australia include:
Intellectual property is of great importance to society as it endeavours to protect the rights of the public, the creators of the works and sets guidelines and boundaries to be abided by in the use of technological advances. “As an area of law, intellectual property is clearly very important, going back to the first printing presses and the medieval guilds�. (McKeough & Stewart, 1991).
The beginnings of Australia’s copyright laws were dictated by those governing the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century (McKeough & Stewart, 1991). An example of this was the NSW Copyright Act 1879. This trend has since continued after federation as “many of the early federal statutes were little more than re-enactments of their British counter-parts… (as the) Copyright Act 1912 simply declared the Copyright Act 1911 (UK) to be in force throughout Australia� (McKeough & Stewart, 1991). Even to this day, there are many likenesses in the laws between Australia and the United Kingdom.
The 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is of special note as Article 2 (viii) defines intellectual property “to include the rights of : (2) performances of performing artists… and broadcasts; (3) inventions in all fields of human endeavor; and all other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literacy and artistic fields.� (McKeough & Stewart, 1991).
In the UK, it is an offense to “reproduce the work (including computer programs) in any material form� (Baker & MaKenzie, 1998). (C.D.P.A 1988 s17). However, it is not an offense for a person (a lawful user of a computer program that is ) to produce a back-up copy for lawful use only (Bott et al, 1995).
Many of the people and the organizations that are creating the computer programs and software deem “any use made of their software without permission to be unfair and that all unauthorized use ought to be made illegal�. (Bott et al, 1995). However, in this day and age, the task of monitoring the uses of technology would prove to be near impossible, as while there are notable advances made with regards to technology, there are many advances being made to copy and pirate it. An example of this would be DVD home burning). McKeough & Stewart have also raised this point in that “technology… has been a double-edged sword, because the same advances have occurred in relation to copying techniques, making it easier for piracy to take place… the very medium of computer data storage lends itself to unauthorized access and copying�.
Some questions have been raised with regards to concerns surrounding the copyright of computer programs including:
The use of intellectual property in the digital age is one that is related to all other areas of technology and encompasses the internet and computer software, International Law, Australian Law, History of Intellectual Property, as well as Broadcasting. As society grows and expands, so does technology and, in turn, the law.
Daniellepalmer 17:41, 20 Sep 2004 (EST)
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