A day after the bosses of Australia’s biggest sports lobbied the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and senior ministers for urgent changes to copyright law, the government has announced that it has ordered a review of the copyright law in the digital environment.
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Attorney-General Nicola Roxon this morning said that she had commissioned the Australian Law Reform Commission to conduct the review. She said it had been in the planning for some time but its announcement today was timely.
The review will be conducted by Professor Jill McKeough of the University of Technology, Sydney.
Ms Roxon said Professor McKeough had expertise in intellectual property, consumer protection and commercial law which made her ''eminently qualified'' to lead the review.
She said the inquiry would consider whether the exceptions in the Federal Copyright Act were ''adequate and appropriate in the fast paced digital environment''.
''In our fast changing, technologically driven world, it's important to ensure our copyright laws are keeping pace with change,'' she said.
''The Gillard government is determined to get the balance right between providing incentives for creators and innovators and encouraging new opportunities within a digital economy including via the National Broadband Network'', she said.
Ms Roxon said draft terms of reference for the review would be released for consultation shortly.Yesterday, the chiefs of Australia's biggest sporting codes used their considerable clout to push for copyright law changes following a court ruling allowing Optus to broadcast delayed video of matches on its mobile phone network.
Last week, Optus won a landmark copyright case in the Federal Court, when the court ruled the telco could record and transmit free-to-air television coverage of football and cricket matches over the internet to its customers.
The AFL, NRL and Telstra were seeking an injunction against Optus's TV Now service, that allowed Optus to transmit TV footage - such as live football matches - on delays of one to two minutes to Apple mobile devices.
The decision infuriated Telstra and sports with exclusive broadcast rights deals.
The chief executives of the AFL, Cricket Australia, NRL and Tennis Australia yesterday met the Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, the Sports Minister, Mark Arbib, and Ms Roxon, to propose a ''simple'' amendment to the copyright act.
Ms Gillard, ''stopped by the meeting'', her spokesman said, which included the AFL chief executive, Andrew Demetriou, the Cricket Australia chief, James Sutherland, and the NRL boss, David Gallop.
At a press conference this morning, Ms Gillard said the government was considering whether or not there needed to be changes to the copyright laws.
‘‘We have said to them [sporting bodies] . . . that we will urgently consider options here. I think we are all concerned what this can mean for our great sporting codes and it was an unexpected development,’’ Ms Gillard said.
Senator Conroy said the government was being briefed by the legal teams from the sporting groups.
‘‘We will be going through a process to ensure that if any change is to be made that we would consider any adverse consequences, but at this stage we are just getting the legal advice fully explained to us and we are happy to consider if a solution is available,’’ Senator Conroy said.
The sports, with netball, rugby and soccer, form the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports and it also met Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's chief-of-staff, Peta Credlin, to seek bi-partisan support.
Executive director Malcolm Speed said the group wanted to clarify a provision in the copyright act for sports to maintain the right to exclusively sell their digital content to broadcasters.
He said lawyers representing the sports and the government would meet to thrash out details. Mr Gallop said the sports wanted to show they were united in their need for a ''quick but simple'' amendment to copyright laws.
''It is clear that the technology has overtaken the law, the previous changes to the act were already expressed to protect the interest of copyright-holders and this development and the court decision supporting it, flies in the face of that,'' he said.
Mr Gallop said the group received a good hearing and the outcome was constructive, from both sides of politics.
''We are dealing with a situation where an asset on our balance sheet, being copyright of our content, has been transferred to another company's balance sheet without our consent, that cannot be right and needs to be fixed quickly,'' Mr Gallop said.
It is understood the amendments would not remove the right for people to tape content from their TVs for replay.
The AFL last year signed a five-year rights deal worth $1.25 billion, including a $153 million deal with Telstra, and the NRL are to negotiate a new deal soon.
TV rights is the main source of revenue for both codes, something Mr Gallop said the group made clear during the meetings.
It is understood the government is taking the issue very seriously. Ms Roxon's spokesman last night said the government had considered both the rights of consumers and content producers, while also ''working to maintain a sustainable legal framework that accommodates the innovative digital environment''.
with Richard Willingham
Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU
Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU
