PR agencies have been given a “safe harbour” protecting them from action for copyright breaches after the Public Relations Institute of Australia signed an agreement with the Copyright Agency after a number of PR shops had been caught breaching copyright rules.
The three year deal, which also gives agencies discounted access to copyrighted materials, will allow agencies to avoid fines if they subsequently put the correct licenses in place.
Negotiations between the PRIA and the Copyright Agency have been under way for the past six months and have resulted in the development of the self-regulatory system.
The agreement is one of the first in the world between a copyright management and collection organisation and communications industry body.
Ross McCaul, director of commercial licensing for the Copyright Agency, said there had been some breaches identified in the PR industry and the agreement was pioneering.
“There has been a little bit of a compliance problem, but no worse than the pharmaceutical industry 10 years ago,” McCaul said.
Sales representatives in the pharmaceutical industry used to breach copyright when handing out photocopied articles from medical journals as part of their sales information materials and the industry reached an agreement with the agency.
“Copyright Agency sees the signing of this national agreement as a first step in a long term partnership,” he continued.
Adam Benson, chairman of the PRIA's registered consultancy group, said agencies regularly used copyrighted materials.
“Many PR consultancies use a large amount of copyrighted content every day as part of their work,” Benson said.
“Through this national agreement we have, for the first time, a recognised understanding by rights holders and their collection agency that Registered Consultancy Group members understand and comply with copyright requirements as a matter of good business practice."
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