Reuses other publishers' content, in Australia

(1990) 37 FCR 99

• A court's reading: the Federal Court of Australia (Beaumont J) restrained a press-clipping service from reproducing four newspaper articles without licence, so treat unlicensed copying of press articles for a clipping service as exposed to an injunction.
• Do not assume that fair dealing (sections 40, 41 or 42 of the Copyright Act 1968), an implied licence, or the articles' publication in a newspaper excuses such copying: the court examined each of those excuses in restraining the service.
• Expect ownership to be in issue: the court considered who owned the copyright under section 35(4) where one article was commissioned and three were written by a journalist under a contract of service.

Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) s 42 · Read the law's page

• You may deal fairly with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work for the purpose of, or in association with, reporting news in a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical (with sufficient acknowledgment), or by means of a communication or cinematograph film, without infringing copyright.
• Do not count on this exception as a third-party aggregator or clipping service: it turns on the purpose of the party claiming it, not the end-use of the content, so such services generally cannot rely on it.

Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), Schedule 2 (Australian Consumer Law), ss 18, 29 and 34 · Read the law's page

• Do not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or is likely to mislead or deceive (section 18(1)).
• Do not, in trade or commerce and in connection with supplying or promoting goods or services, make a false or misleading representation that they have particular performance characteristics, uses or benefits (section 29(1)(g)).
• Do not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is liable to mislead the public as to the nature, the characteristics, the suitability for their purpose or the quantity of any services (section 34).

No. 21, 2021 (Cth) · Read the law's page

• Applies to you only if the Minister designates your digital platform service after considering the bargaining imbalance and news-industry sustainability; no platform has been formally designated.
• If designated, bargain with registered news businesses under the mandatory framework in Part IVBA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).
• If designated, expect compulsory arbitration.

[2022] HCA 27

• A court's reading of the common law of defamation in Australia: you may show a search result that links to a third party's page without becoming the publisher of what that page says, where the result itself carries nothing defamatory, because the High Court held that internet search engine results that are not themselves defamatory do not come within the purview of publication.
• Check what the result itself says: the joint reasons noted that a search result may itself contain matter which is defamatory, which was not the case before the Court.
• Do not endorse, adopt or otherwise approve of defamatory matter on the linked page: the joint reasons accepted that the rules of publication apply where a person does so.
• Do not entice or encourage readers to click through to defamatory matter: Gageler J accepted that a hyperlink might combine with other factors, such as enticing or encouraging the reader to click, to amount to participation in publication, a question of fact and degree.
• A notice that a linked page is defamatory does not by itself make you its publisher: the joint reasons held that it is incorrect in principle to employ notification in connection with publication, and that notice may be relevant to knowledge in the defence of innocent dissemination.

News Media Bargaining Charge Act 2026 (Cth), Act 78 of 2026, assented to 26 August 2026 · Read the law's page

• Pay the news media bargaining charge at 2.75% of the service group's relevant Australian digital advertising revenue for the second-most-recent financial year, if you are the parent entity of a service group that provides a significant social media or search service and the group's revenue for that service exceeds A$250 million.
• Offset the charge by providing consideration to registered news businesses: the offset needs new eligible expenditure in relation to at least 8 different news business corporate groups, counts expenditure on groups made up only of small or medium business entities at 200% and on other groups at 150%, and cannot exceed the charge.
• Give the Commissioner of Taxation a return relating to the charge within 6 months after the end of the financial year, even where offsets reduce the amount payable to nil; the charge is due 21 days after the notice of assessment.