Copyright Agency launches celebrity copyright campaign

The Copyright Agency and APRA AMCOS, which supports Australian music creators, have launched a celebrity social media campaign ‘aimed at encouraging Australian audiences to respect creative property rights’.

The campaign ‘This Book/Song Changed My Life’ will see well-known Australians share stories about the creative works that changed their lives. Among the participants are authors Tara Moss, Isobelle Carmody, Michael Robotham and Nikki Gemmell, who join radio presenter Rove McManus, artist Reg Mombassa, musician Sam Margin, actor Jake Speer, and journalists Tracy Spicer and Joe Hildebrand.

The campaign will also ask Australians to upload their own stories and make a pledge to respect creators, ‘earning them a digital badge that will appear to their friends and followers’.

The Copyright Agency and APRA AMCOS said in a statement that the campaign has been established ‘to highlight the importance of Australian creativity, in light of some proposed changes to copyright laws that, if implemented, would damage Australian creativity. They are, the introduction of a US-style copyright system which would make content free and a change to rules about who is responsible for copyright infringement on websites such as YouTube.’

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the Productivity Commission released a draft report on intellectual property reform in April, which recommended the introduction of US-style ‘fair use’ copyright rules. The Productivity Commission’s final report was handed to government in September.

To view the campaign videos, visit the website here.

Category: Local news