Education

Recognition, Protection and Copyright

Indigenous people's cultural and intellectual property is not adequately protected under western intellectual property systems. Most intellectual, property is protected under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Copyright is a bundle of specific rights granted to the creators of literary, dramatic, artistic or musical works and the makers of sound recordings and films, "published editions" and broadcasts.

Copyright will exist in a work as soon as it is created (for example, reduced to "material form", as when an image is put on paper) or in a recording or film as soon as it is made, provided that certain statutory requirements are met:

• Original work: The new work must not be copied, and the creator must have used the necessary degree of skill, labour and effort to create a new work.
• Material form: A work must be written down or recorded in some fixed form.
• Identifiable author: There must be an author, or authors, for a work to be a copyright work. Generally the author must be identifiable, although there is some protection for anonymous works.

Duration of copyright

The period for protection of copyright is, generally:

• Published artistic, literary, musical and dramatic works - 70 years from the death of the artist.
• Unpublished artistic, literary, musical and dramatic works - 70 years from the date of publication.
• Films, sound recordings - 70 years from when they are made.

Some Indigenous cultural and intellectual property is not protected by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) because it does not meet the abovementioned requirements. It is important that people working with Indigenous people's intellectual and cultural property are aware of these issues.

Due to the Australia - United States Free Trade Agreement, the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) was amended in 2004. For further information on these changes refer to IP Australia.

For further information on other Copyright Laws, check out our resources page.

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