Where Could Open Access Stand in Australia's Copyright Regulatory System? Models and Theories

Abstract

The first part of this article conceptualises open access practice.The second part considersrelevant open access practice developments in the Australian legal landscape. The institutional perspective is considered by examining specific Australian institutions’ (i.e., the Australian Research Council, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) and the Australian Productivity Commission) contributions and the potentiality thatstems from such contributionsforfuture reform of the Copyright Act. The third part examines the interrelation between copyright law, licensing and open access practice. In the fourth part, an international perspective is taken to understand national practices via statutory policies in the international sphere, which is then juxtaposed to Australian contributions.The concluding part talks about the importance of the final report on “Intellectual Property ArrangementsInquiry”issued by the Australian Productivity Commission (2016), which set up the appropriate background towards a gradual integration of open access practice in the Copyright Act.