The Effect Of Copyright Provisions On Higher Education

The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (the Act) has a significant influence on the way higher education providers can use copyright material, including books, articles, online research resources, films and sound recordings.

The Act has undergone significant change in the past year. In late 2006, a large number of amendments were made, many of which impact upon educational institutions and allow them to make further uses of copyright material, often without the need to pay a fee to the copyright owner. These amendments are currently being analysed and digested to see how they can be used to the benefit of educational institutions.

The education amendments include:

• the introduction of a new exception to clarify that certain system level caching (eg proxy caching) will not infringe copyright;