The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has made a submission to the Australian Government Productivity Commission responding to its draft report on Intellectual Property Arrangements, which has been supported by a letter from the International Authors Forum. Download the submission here.
The ASA opposes the Productivity Commission’s draft recommendations relating to:
- the introduction of “fair use”
- the repealing of parallel importation rules and
- lobbying for a reduction of the term of copyright.
These recommendations reflect a crippling erosion of the copyright position of creators and would be disastrous for the members of the ASA; Australian writers and illustrators.
IAF strongly urges the Commission to remove recommendations regarding “fair use” and the parallel importation of books from its final report.
IAF is wholeheartedly behind the necessarily strong efforts of ASA to convey the implications of the report for Australian authors if its recommendations are implemented.
We would like to express solidarity with ASA on behalf of the 56 IAF organisations IAF represents in addition to ASA, representing over 600,000 authors worldwide. IAF encourages all authors to come together and communicate their point of view where their rights are concerned, in order to ensure the author’s voice is heard and copyright is not eroded, jeopardising authors’ livelihoods and professional existence.