The Copyright (Parallel Importation) Bill 2003 was passed in the Australian Senate yesterday, after the Democrats supported the bill in exchange for a range of measures to protect owners of intellectual property. Parallel importation is the commercial importation of legitimate copyright goods without needing permission from the Australian copyright owner.
ARIA said copyright protection is increased by the bill by improvements to presumptions of copyright ownership, amendments to the labelling provisions to match international record industry practice, extension of the civil jurisdiction of the Federal Magistrates' Court to encompass copyright matters, increased penalties for importing pirated products and further criteria for awarding additional damages to a copyright owner.
"In essence, these changes will assist the industry to reduce the high cost of copyright litigation and allow us to use our anti-piracy resources more efficiently. The record industry faces the ever increasing threat of CD piracy globally and these measures will greatly aid us in meeting that threat more effectively," said Stephen Peach, CEO of ARIA.
Labor opposed the bill, with Shadow Minister for Information Technology Senator Kate Lundy saying she was disappointed the Democrats supported the bill in exchange for "a raft of ad-hoc antipiracy provisions", and said the bill would "have a negative impact on the software and digital content sector".
Lundy also expressed concern that the bill would undermine the Australian classification scheme as it relates to computer games, as customs ceased to check for 'authorised' versions of the game as they do now. Some computer games have their software modified to comply with Australian classification laws, but the external packaging looks the same as overseas copies.
"So, under parallel importation, software could come into Australia as inappropriately classified or even as a version which would otherwise be prohibited," said Lundy. She added this might leave the company that produced the game vulnerable to prosecution under the classification act despite the fact they had no ability to manage the classification of its games in Australia.
Democrat Senator Aden Ridgeway disagreed that this was a concern. "Regardless of whether the products are produced in Australia or overseas, the classification requirements remain the same: parallel-imported products will still need to meet the classification criteria."
