December 23, 2015

Statement in response to the release of draft amendments to the Copyright Act

The Copyright Agency welcomes the opportunity to review proposed changes to the Copyright Act. We particularly welcome the amendments to simplify the statutory licences for education, which have resulted from a joint proposal from schools, universities, Screenrights and the Copyright Agency. Copyright Agency CEO, Adam Suckling, says, “We support simplifying the education statutory licences, which […]

December 23, 2015

Changes to Copyright Act proposed

The Federal Government has released an ‘exposure draft’ of the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill 2016 for public comment. The Bill seeks to: streamline the educational statutory licence provisions to make it easier for educational institutions and copyright collecting societies to agree on licensing arrangements for copyright material provide simple, clear rules […]

Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Announcement

December 22, 2015

Close to $1m drives Australia’s creative culture

The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund has given more than $933,000 to 41 creative projects all over Australia in its latest grants round. Highlights of the round include: $90k to Queensland Theatre Company for an Indigenous New Work Residency; $24k to support the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2016; $30k for the Kid’s Own (Vic) project: Into […]

December 21, 2015

Marina Abramović In Residence

During June 2015, Kaldor Public Art Projects presented a unique experiential 12 day live-in residency with prominent performance artist, Marina Abramović and a group of 12 Australian artists. The project was supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and was open to the public with a total of 31,000 visitors, many participating in the Evenings […]

December 9, 2015

Artists Respond to Survey

More than 1,000 visual artists from around Australia and New Zealand have completed a survey as part of a new Viscopy led research initiative, Voice of the Artist. Conducted by independent research company AMR, the survey reached beyond Copyright Agency and Viscopy’s membership to include other professional artists who were members of organisations like NAVA, […]

December 7, 2015

PwC Report says copyright changes should be ‘evidence based’

Changes to Australia’s copyright laws to a US-style ‘fair use’ model would ‘undermine incentives to invest, trigger company closures and smash local creativity’, according to a cost-benefit analysis by PwC – as reported in the Australian Financial Review article: Don’t change copyright law, urges PwC. The view is supported by the Copyright Agency, along with other media […]

December 3, 2015

Warhol at National Gallery of Victoria

Copyright Agency | Viscopy have been busy working closely with the National Gallery of Victoria licensing Warhol’s work for the Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei major international exhibition on now in Melbourne. Developed by the NGV and the Andy Warhol Museum, the exhibition presents more than 300 works, including major new commissions, immersive installations and a […]

Michael Robotham

December 3, 2015

Copyright and Piracy: Michael Robotham

First let me say that I am passionate about freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of expression. I also want to laud the digitalisation of media as one of the greatest breakthroughs in history. Until a few years ago, despite being translated into 23 languages, my psychological thrillers were accessible to a relatively […]