The remuneration of Australian authors has been decreasing over the last few decades, partly due to unfair contracts between authors and publishers. At the same time, Australian copyright law appears to do nothing to address the problem. The freedom of contract doctrine that still prevails in Australian copyright contract law is not able to tackle the problem of unfair distribution of revenues effectively, and its shortcomings are not well addressed by either general contract law doctrines or collective bargaining in the publishing sector. This article argues that Australia should consider addressing the problem by introducing certain rights inalienability restrictions in copyright law that are available in a number of jurisdictions overseas. The article discusses the rationales of introducing such provisions under Australian copyright law, such as unequal bargaining power, the prediction problem, fairness and utilitarian approaches. It counters the arguments that alienability restrictions are ineffective, and refers to the most recent empirical studies that show the ability of some alienability provisions to increase author remuneration.

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This article examines the question of whether the public lending right (PLR) as harmonized under the EU Rental and Lending Directive 2006/115/EC should equally apply to both print books and e-books. This question has been answered in the affirmative by the CJEU in the recent VOB case. The paper argues that extending the PLR exception to e-book lending might be not the most appropriate solution. It would neither solve the problems that libraries face in relation to e-lending, nor would it ensure appropriate remuneration to authors. At this stage, other possible alternatives should be explored.

Mass digitization projects that have been carried out by libraries and their commercial partners across the Atlantic, such as Google Books and Europeana, are celebrating their 10th birthdays. This article analyses what legal challenges they pose to the copyright law systems, and how the US and EU jurisdictions have responded to them. In particular, the article identifies certain elements in the US copyright law system that played an important role in encouraging the creation of innovative and value-added services in the library sector. These elements include the transformative use doctrine, the restrictive interpretation of the market harm criterion and the openness towards commercial reuse of works. It is then discussed whether, and how, these elements could be better integrated in the EU copyright law system in order to foster the European library and information technology sector.

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