Fitzgerald, Brian --- "Foreword" [2007] SydUPLawBk 3; in Atkinson, Benedict (ed), "The True History of Copyright - The Australian experience 1905-2005" (Sydney University Press, 2007) xix

Foreword

In 2004 – the year of the Australian-US Free Trade Agreement – I was asked by a number of people whether anyone had looked at the history of Australian copyright law and policy. While there were bits and pieces available I could not point to any sustained and conceptual analysis of the path of copyright law in this country. It was my good fortune in 2005 (via a lead from my sister Anne Fitzgerald) to stumble upon the excellent work Ben Atkinson had undertaken as part of his LLM at the University of Sydney. Ever since that time I have recommended it to anyone who is interested in the topic.

Ben is an outstanding scholar and this book is testament to his ability. In it he manages to blend his passion for history with the thorny topic of copyright politics and law, managing to paint a fascinating picture of Australian history. I found it interesting to see the role different people had played in this story and hope one day with Ben’s help we might be able to assemble a number of these personalities together in old Parliament House in Canberra to recreate and repurpose some of the debate.

At a deeper level Ben challenges us to consider the very rationale of copyright law. Ben’s experience in working with government policy on copyright, his passion for history and the context of the AUSFTA provides the framework for understanding what has occurred in the past and what we face in the future. His work could have simply been a descriptive account of the history of the legislation but he has chosen to confront us with his ultimate conclusion that copyright law is fuelled by a volatile mix of ever–increasing vested interests. Ben’s scholarly analysis, along with the fine detail of the history of the 1905, 1912 and 1968 Copyright Acts provides any student, policy maker, practitioner or user of copyright law with a tremendous platform on which to build understanding, argument and ultimately policy direction.

For me this book highlights the need for us to remain vigilant about the boundaries of copyright law and to find the balance that will prosper social and cultural as well as economic life. In this regard it is interesting to note the rise of large access corporations like Google Inc and Yahoo! Inc that are driven by their business models to provide greater access. They will provide a serious challenge and counterweight to the interests that currently dominate copyright politics. In highlighting – in a “public choice” methodology – the rent seeking actors over the last 100 years, Ben opens our minds to the possibility of new rent seekers that may fundamentally change the way we view copyright into the future. A history written in 100 years time (with the benefit of hindsight) will no doubt talk about the Internet era and how new interests influenced the law making process to provide us with a new type of law around networked information relations and access.

I commend Ben on his excellent work and anticipate the future volumes. Like any good historian he must realise that he has only just begun his long journey into the history and politics of Australian copyright law. But in doing so he has unlocked a box that has been closed for far too long. My hope is that other researchers will follow him in this field of endeavour and provide a truly Australian perspective on the past, present and future of copyright law and policy.

Professor Brian Fitzgerald

Director of the Intellectual Property Research Program

Faculty of Law

Queensland University of Technology