Copyright Law

‘[T]he author of this work bravely undertook a herculean task. The book, in covering an immense breadth of frequently difficult subject-matter so compactly, but accurately, represents an immense achievement. It narrates Australian copyright law’s story from inception to the present, with the conceptual cohesion and consistent tone of an engaged and knowledgeable author. Its orderly structure, extensive reference to significant case law and effective practical illustrations enhance its appeal.’

– from the Foreword by The Hon Julie Dodds-Streeton QC

Copyright Law offers a comprehensive resource for practitioners, students and those in copyright-dependent industries. It deals with all the private law regimes within the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) – proprietary copyright, technical protection measures, performers’ rights and moral rights.

The work has a strong focus on Australian jurisprudence and law reform, and provides expositions of complex matters within their treaty law, litigious, technological, historical or political contexts. Particularly thorough treatments are given to areas that frequently present difficulty in practice, such as implied licences, title, Copyright Tribunal jurisdiction, the interface with design law and pecuniary remedies.

The work also provides an explanation of territoriality, private international law principles relating to copyright and jurisdictional attachment. This is done in a way that both delineates the limits of Australian copyright jurisdiction, and sets out the various pathways for entry into that jurisdiction.

This book represents a much-needed cohesive account of the area, in which lateral cross-cutting influences between the various topics are identified.

About the Author

Dr David Brennan is a Visiting Fellow at the UTS Law Faculty and has served as a long-standing Copyright Policy Consultant to Screenrights – The Audio-Visual Copyright Society. He has taught intellectual property at tertiary level since 1996 including at the universities of Melbourne, Adelaide, Oxford and most recently Monash.

His doctoral thesis was published by Kluwer Law International in 2003 under the title Retransmission and US Compliance with TRIPS and concerned whether a remunerated exception in US copyright law met a Berne-in-TRIPS minimum standard. He has served as an Editor of the Australian Intellectual Property Journal since 2007, and is the author of over 40 published pieces of legal research including his 2015 legal history article ‘The Root of Title to Copyright in Works’ published in the Intellectual Property Quarterly.