Lost adaptations: piracy, ‘Rip Offs’, and the Australian Copyright Act 1905

Abstract

By investigating the early Australian feature films, through the Australian Copyright Act 1905, begins a discussion on the emerging industrialisation of patent and copyright law, which did not recognise celluloid pictures as matter that could be copyrighted. With the Act formed to provide authors greater powers to stop the proliferation of degraded versions of their work, film-makers came to adaptation as a strategy to legally protect their moving pictures from copyright infringements. By concentrating on the Australian cinema’s early tradition of adaptation, during the nascent period of film production (1906–1911), in this article, I will discuss how film-makers at, and outside of, the cinema were encouraged to engage with feature films as adaptation – and what this culturally meant. In a time of uncontrolled piracy and plagiarism ‘rip offs’, adaptations of popular works became a means for producers to copyright their films. And it was through this Act that the tradition of Australian adaptation began. By investigating the industrial factors behind where, why and how this tradition was culturally and socially shaped will identify by what means adaptation was spawned from the industry of copyright in a time where film-makers were trying to distinguish their works in a crowded field of film production and exhibition.