Cultural Policy To Compensate Artists For Use Of Works
The Age
Sunday October 16, 1994
Australia's visual artists will be compensated for the reproduction of their works under a scheme expected to be included in the Prime Minister's cultural policy tomorrow.
A copyright collection agency for Australian artists, photographers and cartoonists called Viscopy will be funded by the Government and will return royalties to artists whose work is reproduced in Australia and overseas.
The decision will end more than a decade of lobbying by the arts community for protection of images that are easily stolen through photocopying, merchandising or broadcasting. Photocopying royalties alone are expected to be worth $1.5 million a year to Australian artists.
The cultural policy, to be announced in Canberra by Mr Keating tomorrow, is believed to commit about $240 million over four years to the arts, despite trimming by the Government's expenditure review committee and the Cabinet.
The policy statement, which was promised by Mr Keating in 1991 and has been delayed several times since, is hoped by many in the arts to be a far-ranging and serious package of initiatives that will encourage and protect the arts in Australia into the next century. It is believed to have been directly shaped by Mr Keating and the Minister for Communications and the Arts, Mr Lee.
Money for Australia's most important funding body, the Australia Council, will be increased by about $6 million a year and more money will be made available for the marketing and promotion of Australian artists overseas.
The policy comes two weeks after the Federal Opposition launched its own statement, The Cultural Frontier, which listed accessibility, diversity and international touring as key priorities.
Mr Keating's plan is understood to place a greater emphasis on new forms of communication. The encouragement of multi-media arts industries and their use of communications technology will be an important theme.
© 1994 The Age