17 May, 2002

Copyright Agency Limited signs historic five-year copying agreement with Australian universities

Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) and the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (AV-CC) yesterday signed a historic five-year agreement covering the monitoring of copying by universities for teaching and educational purposes.

Under the terms of the agreement, digital copying and communication by universities will be monitored for the first time. This will enable both CAL and Australian universities to meet the requirements of the new digital amendments to the Copyright Act 1968, which came into force last year.

The agreement deals with access to educational content for universities and provides Australian authors and publishers with a secure environment in which to create new on-line learning material.

"This agreement is considered to be an international benchmark, and a demonstration that Australia is leading the way in intellectual property practice. It reinforces CAL’s commitment to ensuring fair access to original learning materials and fair payment for creators," said Mr Michael Fraser, Chief Executive Officer, CAL.

Universities make multiple copies of a wide range of copyright material for coursepacks including books, journal articles, photographs and diagrams. CAL is responsible for monitoring the copying done by universities, and distributing the payment for this copying to its author, journalist, visual artist and publisher members.

Mr John Mullarvey, Chief Executive Officer of the AVCC said, "The negotiation of this agreement has been a protracted process, but we believe that we have achieved a good outcome for the universities. Importantly, the agreement will provide universities with five years of certainty, in terms of knowing what the costs will be to them for copying and communicating copyright material."

"This agreement ushers in a new era of co-operation between CAL and Australia’s universities," agreed Mr Fraser.

"During negotiations we worked through a wide range of new on-line issues with the AVCC, and we have now established a solid foundation for ongoing co-operation," he added.

From left standing:Bill Kyrios, Licensing Manager, CAL; Paul Stubing, AVCC; Caroline Morgan, Corporate Counsel, CAL
Seated: Michael Fraser, Chief Executive, CAL; John Mullarvey, Chief Executive Officer, AVCC

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