from your own Australian Copyright Organization
www.copyright.org.au site:
Protection is free and automatic in Australia.
There is no system of registration for copyright protection in Australia. Copyright protection does not depend upon registration, publication, a copyright notice, or any other procedure - the protection is free and automatic.
A photograph is protected by copyright automatically from the moment it is taken.
As a result of international treaties such as the Berne Convention, most foreign copyright owners are protected in Australia, and Australian copyright owners are protected in most other countries. For more info, see "Copyright protection in other countries" from the same site.
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I know in the US, a work is automatically copyrighted the moment an original piece is created (barring copyright or trademark infringement in it's creation). No registration of copyright is required, nor do you have to place a © notice on the item. That original could be artist works, written materials, music and films.
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they also say that you may have advantages to putting your own © on your work, but it is not required for protection in Australia and in most other countries... it just serves as a notice or warning to people and lets them know who the work belongs to.
Most sites have a usage rule link on their websites instead of putting copyright info on each piece of art on their site, but if people are simply bypassing even looking at the site where the photo is (i.e. using the "see full-size image" link and just saving to desktop), it doesn't make it OK or legal.
as far as who has the copyright to the photos you were speaking of, it depends what the photo subject was, who was involved with the creation of the photo, whether you were taking a photo as part of your job... unless you work for a newspaper or magazine, then other rules can apply.
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the Australian Copyright Organization says that you need to get permission to use artwork, unless it's past duration of copyright time, like you can use the masters' paintings because they're way past copyright duration. But otherwise you need to get permission, even if you don't see a copyright notice, it is still copyrighted, it belongs to someone, even if you only want to use a part of their artwork, you need to get permission.
that is the same law in most countries... it's that Berne Convention and international treaties regarding internet and copyrights. After spending $1700 trying to protect your own work, why would you want to risk copying other's works?
I've been paying lawyer and others (more than twice that amount) because my neighbor violated all kinds of laws, some of which were on done my property without my permission or the city's permission or permits, and I had to remove and fix everything on my property even tho I had nothing to do with it... doesn't make me want to go over to someone else's property and do that same thing to them!
Anyways, I couldn't find anything on photo collections vs. the photos in the collection in Australia copyright information. What / where is that law. I'd like to read it.
