In Australian and Singapore Copyright Law*
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792 Singapore Academy of Law Journal (2012) 24 SAcLJ REFLECTIONS ON AUTHORSHIP AND THE MEANING OF A “WORK” IN AUSTRALIAN AND SINGAPORE COPYRIGHT LAW* While other articles in this special issue discuss changing standards of originality in copyright law, this article deals with a number of further issues that are closely related, and which have great practical implications in both the traditional print and online environments. It begins with a consideration of the concept of authorship and the meaning of a “work”, and how these matters affect one’s understanding of the standard that is to be applied when considering the question of copyright subsistence. National and international approaches are considered, particularly with reference to the provisions of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and recent Australian decisions in which the link between authors and their works has been stressed. The following issues are then discussed: whether there is a quantum requirement for the purposes of determining that something is a “work” in the first place; the activities that are to be included within the scope of the term “authorship”; whether there are meaningful boundaries to be drawn between different species of works, in particular, literary and artistic works; the degree to which human involvement is necessary for the purposes of showing that a work is one of authorship; and the problems of multiple authors, particularly in the online environment. Sam RICKETSON Professor of Law, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia. I. Introduction 1 Several of the articles in this special issue deal with, in different ways, the meaning of “originality” in copyright law and the way in which * This article has its origins in several seminars that were given by the author, together with Jane Ginsburg of Columbia Law School, at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford in October 2012. It was developed further in a more extended lecture conducted by the author at the University of Amsterdam on 6 July 2011, and was refined yet further in a lecture given at the Centre for Transnational Legal Studies in London on 17 March 2012. © 2012 contributor(s) and Singapore Academy of Law. No part of this document may be reproduced without permission from the copyright holders. Reflections on Authorship and the Meaning of a (2012) 24 SAcLJ “Work” in Australian and Singapore Copyright Law 793 this concept appears to be bringing US, Australian and Singapore laws to something closer to the civil law concept of “intellectual creation”. It is not the purpose of the present article to canvass this territory again in any detail.1 Rather, the intention is to investigate some further issues that are closely related, if not fundamental to, any proper consideration of standards of originality, and which have great practical implications in both the traditional print and online environments: the concept of authorship and the meaning of a “work”, and how these matters play into the standard that we should apply when considering the question of copyright subsistence. Various consequential issues then arise for consideration, including the following: whether there is a quantum requirement for the purposes of determining that something is a “work” in the first place; what activities are to be included within the scope of the term “authorship”; whether there are meaningful boundaries to be drawn between different species of works, in particular, literary and artistic works; the degree to which human involvement is necessary for the purposes of showing that a work is one of authorship; and the problems of multiple authors, particularly in the online environment. 2 This article begins, then, by considering what is meant by the terms “author” and “work”. II. The starting point – National laws 3 In Australian and Singapore national laws, the link between works and authorship (and originality) is clearly articulated. Thus, both the Australian and Singapore Copyright Acts distinguish between “original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works” (protected under Part III) and “subject-matter other than works” (Part IV).2 Some of these terms are then defined further in inclusive terms (in the case of literary works, specifically dealing with status of computer programs and compilations, as well as in the case of dramatic works, so as to apply to works of choreography and mime), exhaustive terms (in the case of artistic works) or not at all (in the case of musical works).3 However, the link between the “work” and the “author” is a prerequisite for protection under both Acts, a condition that is stated explicitly in the case of 1 See further Sam Ricketson, “Common Law Approaches to the Requirement of Originality” in The Common Law of Intellectual Property: Essays in Honour of Prof David Vaver (Lionel Bently, Catherine W Ng & Giuseppina D’Agostino eds) (Hart Publishing, 2010) at pp 221–253. 2 Copyright Act 1968 (Act No 63 of 1968) (Cth) (Aust); Copyright Act 1987 (Act 2 of 1987). 3 See generally the definitions of these terms that appear in s 10(1) of the Copyright Act 1968 (Act No 63 of 1968) (Cth) (Aust) and s 7 of the Copyright Act 1987 (Act 2 of 1987). © 2012 contributor(s) and Singapore Academy of Law. No part of this document may be reproduced without permission from the copyright holders. 794 Singapore Academy of Law Journal (2012) 24 SAcLJ unpublished works4 while being implicit for published works, in that these must be “original” and therefore the product of an act of authorship.5 In this regard, the statement of Isaacs J in an early Australian case arising under the Copyright Act 1911,6 where the same language was used, remains apposite:7 [I]n copyright law the two expressions ‘author’ and ‘original work’ have always been correlative; the one connotes the other. 4 Nonetheless, neither the Australian nor Singapore Copyright Acts provides any guidance as to the meaning of “author” or what authorial attributes must be present, with the limited exception that, in the case of photographs, the reference to “author” means the “person who took the photograph”.8 While strictly confined in its application, this definition at least has some utility when compared with the more general definition of “author” that now appears in UK legislation, to the effect that “author”, in relation to a work, means “the person who creates it”.9 It might be said that the latter definition appears to beg the question as to what is meant by “creates”; on the other hand, it provides courts with some useful flexibility in determining just what constitutes authorship in any given case, as well as underlining that authorship is concerned with the act of making (creating) a work or bringing it into existence. In the absence of such a definition, Australian and Singapore courts may have even greater room for manoeuvre in deciding new cases of claimed authorship as they arise, but the lack of statutory guidance means that this is a journey through uncharted waters with no markers of where authorship fades into non-authorship (and no protection). This, in turn, invites a number of further inquiries: (a) What guidance is there to be found in the international obligations that apply to Australia and Singapore with respect to the protection of works of authorship? The obvious point of reference here is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (“Berne Convention”) 1886, as revised, and as incorporated in our respective World Trade Organization commitments under the annexed Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS Agreement”). As will be seen below, the Berne Convention 4 Copyright Act 1968 (Act No 63 of 1968) (Cth) (Aust) s 32(1); Copyright Act 1987 (Act 2 of 1987) s 27(1). 5 Copyright Act 1968 (Act No 63 of 1968) (Cth) (Aust) s 32(2); Copyright Act 1987 (Act 2 of 1987) s 27(2). 6 c 46 (UK); this Imperial Act was applied in Australia by the Copyright Act 1912 (Cth) (Aust). 7 Sands and McDougall Pty Ltd v Robinson (1917) 23 CLR 49, per Isaacs J. 8 Copyright Act 1968 (Act No 63 of 1968) (Cth) (Aust) s 10(1) and Copyright Act 1987 (Act 2 of 1987) s 7. 9 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c 48) (UK) s 9(1). © 2012 contributor(s) and Singapore Academy of Law. No part of this document may be reproduced without permission from the copyright holders. Reflections on Authorship and the Meaning of a (2012) 24 SAcLJ “Work” in Australian and Singapore Copyright Law 795 provides some boundaries, but is quite open-ended on a number of other areas; furthermore, while it supplies some outer limits, it says relatively little as to what falls within those limits. (b) Given the space for national solutions within these international parameters, how have the Australian and Singapore courts and legislators approached these questions? The central issue here, of course, is the threshold standard of originality that is to be applied in order to gain protection, and which has primarily been a matter for judicial consideration at the national level. (c) What further issues remain unresolved or, perhaps, as yet untested? 5 The first of these questions has been addressed at some length by the present author elsewhere,10 and therefore needs only to be touched on lightly here. The second question, too, has been the subject of detailed consideration by several of the other contributors to this special issue and it will therefore not be covered here again, other than to make some more general observations touching on recent developments in Australia. The third question, however, gives rise to a series of further intriguing inquiries that will form the major part of this contribution, and which also provides some of the larger “back story” that underlies discussion of standards of originality.