The main objective of copyright law is to protect and promote creativity in our economy. In Australia, copyright law is governed by the Copyright Act, 1968 (Cth). It broadly protects works of literary, musical, dramatic and/or artistic creativity.
- Literary works are textual works such as song lyrics, books, journal articles, and the code of computer programs/software. This category covers almost anything in the written form. It does not cover headings and titles, however, because these are not considered substantial enough to warrant legal protection.
- Artistic works cover paintings, photographs, craft work, drawings and sculptures. There is no need for the work to have ‘artistic merit’ to be protected. It simply needs to take artistic form, regardless of perceived quality or skill.
- Musical works cover only musical compositions and notations. It does not cover song lyrics (which are a literary work) or the sound recording of a song (which is protected separately). For this reason, a popular song can have many different ‘layers’ of copyright.
- Dramatic works cover theatrical plays, choreography, and mime pieces, as well as scripts for films.
Copyright law also protects
- cinematographic films which includes visual images and sounds in a film;
- broadcasts by television and radio broadcasters; and
- sound recordings recorded in a studio or otherwise.
A copyright protected work is often denoted by the symbol ‘©’, though this is not required for copyright protection.
Important Notes
- It's important to remember that ‘ideas’ are not protected by copyright. Unless an idea is given some form of literary, dramatic, artistic or musical expression, it cannot be protected under the copyright law.
- There is no system to register copyright in Australia. Copyrightable work does not require registration for protection under the law. Copyright protection is free and automatic.
Example Website creation
Dasha, Sui-Ching and Peter are working together on a website for their employer. They contribute text, photographs and videos to the website. In this example, the text will be protected as a literary work, the photographs will be protected as artistic works, and the videos will be protected as cinematograph films.
Example Video protection
Kirra and Stephanie make a video to upload to YouTube. They write out a scene for the video and act in it themselves. As part of the scene, they perform an original song. Kirra writes and plays the song on her guitar, while Stephanie sings.
In this example, there are a number of different types of copyright works. The script or scene directions for the video will be protected as a dramatic work. The music for the song (i.e. the musical notations) will be protected as a musical work, and the lyrics sung by Stephanie will be protected as a literary work. The overall video will be protected as a film.
