A Negotiated Solution to Audio Home Recording? Lessons from the Us Audio Home Recording Act of 1992
25 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2004
Abstract
In Australia, the conflict between copyright owners and those who wish to use copyrighted works for private, non-commercial purposes remains unresolved. In the US, in contrast, Congress responded to these conflicting claims in relation to musical works by enacting the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) in 1992. To date, there is no equivalent in Australian law, despite recent proposals by two collecting societies to introduce a private copying remuneration scheme in Australia.
This article critically examines the AHRA in order to determine whether Australia should consider enacting a similar scheme. Included is a discussion of the process of negotiated compromise that led to the AHRA, and the identification of the hypothetical result such a process would produce if undertaken in Australia. In contrast to the AHRA, the hypothetical Australian solution neither generates a royalty stream for copyright owners nor confers upon consumers an audio home recording right, thus demonstrating that the process of negotiated compromise does not generate a uniform outcome across all jurisdictions. Rather, the outcome is determined by jurisdictionally-specific and historically-contingent factors.
Keywords: copyright, United States, Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, Australia, music
JEL Classification: K19
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation