SA Copyright Act on Videos Taken from iPhone?

[Lauren CW]

Hey all, thanks for taking the time to read!

I am really struggling to understand how recorded video footage is protected under the copyright act as I believe nowhere in the act it specifically mentions "visual videos".

By this, I mean a video recorded on an iphone and uploaded to a website (not so much a short film, film, drama performance, etc.). Just me whipping my phone out at the pub and recording a friend. I have had many lines of thought that maybe it is grouped in with sound recordings? Or maybe it is classed under cinematography, but I really can't find solid law/sections in the act to show this...

If anybody could tell me which then it would be a great help! And even better if you can point me in the right direction for the part of the act that defines it!

 

[Sophea]

I assume it would just come under the following:

"cinematograph film means the aggregate of the visual images embodied in an article or thing so as to be capable by the use of that article or thing:

(a) of being shown as a moving picture; or

(b) of being embodied in another article or thing by the use of which it can be so shown;

and includes the aggregate of the sounds embodied in a sound - track associated with such visual images."

What is it that you want to know about copyright attaching to film?

 

[Tim W]

I concur with @Sophea .

Firstly, stuff you shoot on an iPhone is indeed a "cinematograph film" (the term is defined in s10 of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).

Secondly, you'll get a better answer if you tell us why you ask.