Phillips Fox Appointed to Government’s Digital Agenda Review

Leading commercial law firm Phillips Fox has been appointed to analyse the Howard Government’s Digital Agenda copyright reforms.

This analysis will form part of the Government’s broader review of these reforms.

Phillips Fox IT partner and leader of the firm’s Digital Agenda Review project team, Matthew Hall said the competitive tender process identified Phillips Fox as having strong industry knowledge and a track record of legal expertise in the area of digital copyright law.

Major amendments to the Copyright Act, which came into effect in March 2001, were introduced to meet the challenges posed by the Internet and other new communications technologies, and to place Australia at the forefront of international developments in online copyright law reform.

Because of the rapid pace of technological development, the Government is committed to reviewing the legislation within three years of its commencement.

Mr Hall said a multi-disciplinary team of experts including Phillips Fox, an economist, a digital industry specialist and a leading copyright academic would undertake the nine-month project that includes extensive public and industry consultation.

“The project will analyse some of the key aspects of the reforms including exceptions for libraries and archives, provisions dealing with devices designed to bypass copyright protection measures and piracy issues arising from the use of new technologies.” Mr Hall said.

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