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 historical foundations upon which copyright and intellectual property laws were built varies from country to country depending on their respective needs at the time. “Thus the law of copyright which evolved in England after the development of the printing press in the fifteenth century differed in significant respects to that which had emerged in Europe, while having little impact on the nascent system for rewarding inventors with letters patent granting them exclusive rights over the exploitation of their inventions�.(McKeough & Stewart, 1991; p3)
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). While following federation in 1901, the laws were passed into the power of the Australian Parliament, “the first laws on the subject in force in the Australian colonies, as they were, emanated from the British Parliament�. (McKeough & Stewart, 1991; p4)
However, Acts passed by parliament continued to echo those governing the United Kingdom, even after the laws had stopped being enacted there. An example is the Copyright Act 1912 (as mentioned earlier) which was in force until 1969 (when the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) was enacted) “13 years after the 1911 Act (also mentioned earlier) had ceased to apply in Britain�. (McKeough & Stewart. 1991; p4)
In Australia, to this day, the copyright and intellectual property laws that govern restraint over the use of the original works of another still echo those of the United Kingdom.
www.copyright.org.au Copyright Council
www.copyright.com.au Copyright Agency Limited
