Lifeblood of the creative sector – have your say on copyright reform

The Australian Government has released draft copyright reform legislation for comment, with input due soon. It is seeking feedback on the legislation, which will help the cultural, education, research and government sectors to provide services in a digital environment, and provide clear and reasonable access to copyright materials while maintaining the incentives and protections for content creators. As part of this, the Government is also reviewing other related copyright issues and wants comments on those as well.

The fact that we are still in the middle of a global pandemic and asking ourselves whether 2021 has actually ended and a new year begun is no good reason to ignore some of the important and pressing matters that keep arising. I discovered just before Christmas that the Australian Government had released for comment draft copyright reform legislation, with comments due in the New Year.

'It may not be mining but they mine a far richer seam – authentic and rich content that has already been recognised internationally for its high value, just like our iron and coal.' 

 

Reforms to support content services in the digital age
I had to search far and wide to find information about it and in the end obtained my information initially from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) website. ALIA sums it up, ‘The Federal Government is seeking feedback on draft copyright reform legislation, released on 22 December 2021. The copyright reforms will help the cultural, education, research and government sectors to provide services in a digital environment, and provide clear and reasonable access to copyright materials while maintaining the incentives and protections for content creators. ALIA, individually and through the Australian Libraries Copyright Coalition (ALACC) have been advocating strongly for reforms to support libraries in the digital age. The Government is also taking this opportunity to conduct a review of the technological protection measure (TPM) exceptions in the Copyright Regulations, as required by the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, and is seeking input.’

Revhead heaven – travelling together into the mobile future

Cars are at the heart of everyday Australian life. Even if they don’t interest you all that much, or even if you mainly use public transport, you probably also use a car regularly. The Sunday drive, the regional road tour, the daily commute are all as Australian as burnt toast and peeling sunburn. The annual Summernats road extravaganza in Australia’s national capital celebrates this mobile culture. With some imagination, it could be even more – celebrating a central, while challenging, part of contemporary Australian popular culture.

The annual Summernats four-day extravaganza of cars and loud revving motors has been a fixture on the Canberra calendar for as long as I’ve lived here – getting on for 22 years. Plenty of Canberrans hate Summernats because of the noise and the crowds and the petrol fumes. Whether they’d hate a large music festival as much is hard to tell. Maybe it’s the NIMBY syndrome – not in my back yard?

Interest in cars pops up in unexpected places. This one was on the traditional site of the Summernats event, EPIC (Exhibition Park in Canberra), but this was during the weekly Farmers Markets also held there.