The Law Handbook 2024

758 Section 7: Consumers, contracts, the internet and copyright Exclusive rights of copyright holders Some rights of copyright holders vary according to the type of material involved. Literary, artistic, dramatic and musical works (s 31) Right to reproduce the work The copyright owner is the only person permitted to reproduce the work, or a substantial part of it (s 14), in material form. Reproducing the work means using it to make a similar, but not necessarily identical, work. This right applies to all types of works. Converting a work into or from a digital or other machine-readable form is reproduction of the work (s 21(1A)). So is the conversion of a computer program from source code to object code, or vice versa, including by the process of compilation or decompilation (s 21(5)). Right to publish the work The copyright owner is the only person permitted to publish a work. ‘To publish’ means to supply reproductions of the work to the public, by sale or otherwise (s 29(1)(a)). This right applies to all types of works. Publication does not need to be on a commercial scale. Right to perform the work in public The owner of copyright is the only person permitted to perform the work in public. This right applies to literary, dramatic or musical works only. Performance includes any method of presentation, including live performance or the use of a recording or film. Communication (i.e. online or electronic trans­ mission) is not a public performance (s 27(2)); although, receiving a transmission (e.g. a radio broadcast) and playing the radio in public can be. Any performance given to members of the public is a performance in public, unless it is of a private or domestic nature. Right to make an adaptation of the work The copyright owner is the only person permitted to make an adaptation of the work. This right applies to literary, dramatic and musical works. Section 10(1) provides that an adaptation of a literary work means: • if the work is not in dramatic form, a version in dramatic form; • if the work is in dramatic form, a version in non- dramatic form; • a version of a computer program that is not a reproduction of that program; • a translation of a literary work into another language; or • a version in which the story or action is conveyed solely or principally by pictures. An adaptation of a musical work is an arrangement or transcription of it. The copyright owner also has the exclusive right to reproduce an adaptation of the work, publish the adaptation, perform the adaptation in public, or communicate it to the public. Right to enter into a commercial rental arrangement The copyright owner is the only person permitted to enter into a commercial rental agreement. This is the right to supply the work on a temporary basis in the course of a business for payment. This right applies to computer programs and to works embodied in sound recordings. Right to communicate to the public The copyright owner is the only person permitted to communicate the work to the public. This applies to all types of works. It means tomake the work available online (e.g. on a website) or to transmit the work electronically (e.g. broadcasting or streaming online). It does not include the distribution of the work in a tangible form. ‘To the public’ means the public within or outside Australia (s 10(1)). This means that an Australian copyright owner can control the work’s communication from Australia to overseas audiences. The creation of a copy of a work when it is downloaded onto a device in Australia involves the reproduction right, not the right of communication (see ‘Right to reproduce the work’, above).