ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to provide a short survey of the Australian copyright enforcement regime. It is intended to inform foreign copyright owners of their substantive and procedural enforcement rights in Australia. The writer will commence with a brief summary of the origins and general nature of Australian copyright law. Then the role of criminal sanctions in copyright enforcement, and the procedure by which criminal action may be initiated by Australian copyright owners, will be discussed. Close attention will be paid to recent amendments that have been made to the criminal provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) by the passage of the Copyright Amendment Act 2006 (Cth). This focus will be followed by a summary of the various civil causes of action open to aggrieved authors and owners. The writer will then close by making certain observations and recommendations regarding copyright infringement and enforcement in Australia.
