As the Australian Copyright Council states:

“Copyright is free and automatic and exists the moment you express your creation in material form (e.g.; draw a sketch on paper, paint a picture on canvas, record a video on a smartphone). There is no need to register copyright in Australia, get a signature from a lawyer or JP, or pay any fees to acquire copyright.

The Copyright Council is aware that there are websites that offer to “register” copyright in Australia upon the payment of registration fees. Such websites are based outside Australia and should be avoided as scams.”

For further details, check out the Council’s fact sheet, An Introduction to Copyright in Australia.

In Australia, copyright in literary and artistic works lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years after their death.

You need to be very careful about quoting from other people’s work, in terms of both acknowledging your source and obtaining permission to use the quote in the first place.

A good place to start is the Australian Copyright Council, as they are the experts in copyright and have some excellent resources available, including two fact sheets:

• Permission: How to Get it
• Permission: Do I Need it?

Once you have read these, you will have a much better idea of your responsibilities, but if in doubt ask for permission as it is much better to be safe than sorry. Remember that acknowledgement of the source of the quote is always essential, but it is not a replacement for permission.

Generally speaking, you obtain permission to use a quote from a copyrighted work, by approaching the publisher of that work. If you want to use a quote from a song lyric, you should check with APRA AMCOS as they may be able to confirm the publisher for you. If you want to quote from a book, then you need to approach the publisher and request permission. Most medium-large publishers will have information about permissions on their websites including online forms to complete, but the main points you will be asked to provide are:

• Who you are
• What you want permission for
• Why you want permission
• Your willingness to discuss a licence agreement or fee

If you are wanting the quote for a non-commercial reason, then you should also make this clear as depending on the circumstances, the publisher may then be willing to waive any fee.

Unfortunately tracking down the right person to grant some of these permissions is not always easy, so you do need to allow plenty of time as it can take months rather than days.

If you want to quote from a work that you know to be out of copyright (ie copyright has expired), you should still always acknowledge the source of the quote.

If you have genuinely made every possible attempt to locate the copyright owner to no avail, you then need to make an assessment as to whether you will take the risk and proceed with a disclaimer in place that expresses your willingness to obtain correct permission if the rightful owner comes forward. Your publisher could help you with this risk assessment based on their experience. The Australian Copyright Council could advise you on your legal risks.

Any website which unlawfully makes available free copies of published books undermines legitimate sales. If you discover that your ebook, in which you own copyright, has been made available for unlawful download from a piracy website, here are some steps you can take:

1. Contact your publisher to alert them to the site. Check if it has already issued a takedown notice on your behalf or intends to do so.

2. Satisfy yourself that neither you nor your publisher nor your distributor has authorised the site to make your ebook available to the public.

3. Contact the proprietor of the website to request immediate removal of your eBook from the site. Write to the “Copyright Officer” if there is one or otherwise to the contact person for the website. Click here for a sample take down notice.

4. Alert Google to the piracy site by completing a Legal Removal Request. If Google receives enough of these notices, it will demote the piracy site in search results.