Law Commons^™

This article considers the radical, sweeping changes to Australian copyright law wrought by the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement 2004 (AUSFTA). It contends that the agreement will result in a "piracy of the public domain". Under this new regime, copyright owners will be able to obtain greater monopoly profits at the expense of Australian consumers, libraries and research institutions, as well as intermediaries, such as Internet Service Providers. Part One observes that the copyright term extension in Australia to life of the author plus 70 years for works will have a negative economic and cultural impact - with Australia's net …