The Digital Industry Group Incorporated’s submission to the Department of Communications and the Arts on the exposure draft of the Copyright

Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill 2016

About DIGI

The Digital Industry Group Incorporated (DIGI) is a not for profit industry association, whose objectives are to:

1. protect the open nature of the Internet for Australians as an environment for innovation and freedom of access to information, communications and commerce;

2. promote the benefits of the Internet to government, community and other key stakeholders; and

3. advocate for a balanced and common sense approach to policy development for the online world.

DIGI’s members include Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo!. DIGI members together employ more than 2,300 people in Australia and have offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.

The business solutions and online platforms that DIGI members provide to the Australian public facilitate new distribution, marketing and revenue generating channels for Australian businesses and content creators. They are also driving fundamental changes to the way that business is conducted and content is created and distributed.

DIGI appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Government’s exposure draft of theCopyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill 2016 (the Draft Bill).

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Safe harbour scheme

DIGI commends the Turnbull Government’s proposal to expand the existing safe harbour scheme in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), as contained in the proposed amendments in Schedule 2 of the Draft Bill (the Proposed Amendments).

DIGI agrees with the proposal to replace the term ‘carriage service provider’ with the term ‘service provider’. DIGI also agrees with the proposed definition of ‘service provider’ included in the Draft Bill. Together those changes will achieve the Government’s stated aim of expanding the range of entities to which the current ‘safe harbour’ provisions apply, to include “educational institutions and other online services (such as online search engines, bulletin boards and cloud storage services)”.1

The definition of service provider is also consistent with the equivalent definition in Article 17.11.29(xi) of the Australia United States Free Trade Agreement and Article 18.81 of the Trans Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement. Accordingly, the proposed amendments will ensure Australia’s compliance with its international treaty obligations in this respect.

For the reasons set out in DIGI’s recent submission to the Productivity Commission’s review into Australia’s IP arrangements,2 DIGI submits the Proposed Amendments, if enacted, will encourage greater innovative activity online by Australian businesses. In particular, the Proposed Amendments will reduce Australia’s status as a highrisk legal environment for hosting content as compared with countries such as the US, the EU, Singapore, Korea and New Zealand.

Importantly, the Proposed Amendments will also benefit rights holders by creating a simple system that will provide them with an efficient way to seek the removal of infringing content online and reward online service providers for their collaboration by granting them certain legal protections. It will also operate to protect the legitimate interests of consumers by providing a process through which to challenge incorrect claims of copyright infringement. As such, the Proposed Amendments would operate to provide legal certainty and minimise compliance costs for all participants.

Consistent with the Turnbull Government’s agenda, if enacted the Proposed Amendments will operate to promote innovation and economic growth.

Email: admin@digi.org.au

1 Department of Communications and the Arts, (‘Stakeholder consultation: proposed reform of the Copyright Act 1968’, December 2015) 6.2 Digital Industry Group Incorporated, Submission No 111 to Productivity Commission, Intellectual Property Arrangements, 18 December 2015<http://www.pc.gov.au/ data/assets/pdf_file/0020/195014/sub111intellectualproperty.pdf>

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