ASA welcomes Copyright Tribunal decision on Universities Australia case

8.06.22

The ASA welcomes the decision of the Copyright Tribunal in the case of Copyright Agency and Universities Australia, handed down last week, ensuring that creators continue to be remunerated fairly for the copyright materials they produce. 

As our members would know, Australian universities pay a fee to Copyright Agency under the educational statutory licence for copying of copyright works in universities. These licence fees are then distributed by Copyright Agency to its members: authors and publishers. 

This dispute involved the amount payable as the licence fee. After extensive negotiations between Copyright Agency and Universities Australia failed to reach agreement, the Tribunal was asked to set fair remuneration for copying and communication of works under the statutory licence. 

Universities Australia argued that the amount payable to Copyright Agency should be reduced after factoring in "actual access" by students to the works, contending that not all students actually access the course materials that are made available. They argued that the Tribunal should not treat work on a digital reading list as having been communicated to each student in the course.  Instead, to reflect actual access, remuneration should be on the basis that the works were communicated to only 20% of the students in each course. 

Copyright Agency argued for remuneration on the basis that each work on a digital reading list is treated as having been communicated to 100% of students in that course. The Tribunal decided that remuneration ought to be based on 75% of students in a course.  

After fixing a per-page rate for digital copying and communicating, and some further adjustments, the Tribunal determined a global remuneration figure of $35.1 million for 2019, with indexation to apply for the years 2020 through to 2022. This figure will be converted to a per-student fee. 

The Tribunal also agreed that it was time the survey methodology be revisited and both Copyright Agency and Universities Australia will have an opportunity to flag their proposed variations to the survey methodology. 

The ASA wishes to acknowledge the authors and publishers who gave evidence to the Tribunal and warmly thanks the Copyright Agency for arguing, on behalf of its members, that there must be fair remuneration for the materials they produce. In an age of easy digital access to a high number of publications, it is easy to forget that each copyright work involves a considerable investment of time and expertise and that, for content to remain high quality, it must be paid for.