I just found, picked up, and perused The True History of Copyright on housemate Bond's desk (see her original post here). Ben Atkinson has done a lot of research into the context in which our copyright laws have been made. I haven't read it all, but just looking at the contents I was interested by the last chapter: Chapter 15 - Policy Observations. These observations are of particular interest to me because it's something I will be addressing in my thesis. But I still thought they were of general enough interest (at least to readers of this blog!) that I'd share the headlines with you:

1. The Berne Convention precipitated the creation of modern copyright law
2. Early legislators tried to qualify the scope of copyright
3. 20th century legislators paid little attention to the question of incentive or production
4. Copyright does not confer an automatic right of remuneration
5. Legislators did not try to "balance" the interests of owners and users
6. Copyright legislation regulates taxation in gross of non-commercial (or non-competing) users to the detriment of public welfare
7. The structure of the Australian Copyright Act reflects sectional interest
8. Public interest considerations were raised consistently in policy and legislative debates
9. The pursuit of authors' rights led to the creation of analogous producers' rights
10. Copyright protection did not cause the economic success of the copyright industries
11. APRA's revenue demands led to the creation of Article 11 bis(2) of the Berne Convention and the Australian Copyright Tribunal
12. The record industry asserted the mechanical performing right opportunistically
13. The role of individual agency is underestimated in analysis of copyright
14. The commercial struggle for control over the broadcast of sport precipitated the Gregory Committee enquiry
15. The origins of Australian copyright policy orthodoxy lie in the Spicer Report and the second reading in the Senate of the 1968 Copyright Bill
16. The parallel importation provisions of the Australian Copyright Act were carried over from imperial legislation
17. Australian legislative debate has seen two great statements of principle: the first over the posthumous term and the second over import controls
18. The content of the modern copyright law of Australia is the entire creation of international conventions and British precedents
19. Doubts over term persisted at the official level until the 1950s

I suppose the above list is pretty much a summary of the conclusions of the book. Of course there are 422 pages leading up to those conclusions, and the conclusions are 19 pages longer than I've presented them above. That is, these statements are supported by significant in-depth research.

Labels: ben, books, policy