In 1978, it was clear that a copyright law could not be justified as Papua New Guinea stood to lose more than it could expect to benefit. One cannot say the same today. Certainly the scale may now be equally balanced or it may go the other way. The important question is to establish if the benefits that a copyright law will bring will offset the costs. But today, this cost may not be as much as it is feared.
Educational institutions continue to buy textbooks or other foreign books.
But, it is the copying of material that we are concerned with. When a student buys a textbook, he or she is paying the full price that a student in Australia would pay. The benefit only comes when educational institutions make copies of that book or parts of such book to make available to students which would not be permitted if a copyright law with international protection existed. The form of legislation As indicated earlier, the detailed issues of what form a copyright law should take and what its details should be are, at this stage, not so crucial. This is the second important question that requires an answer in addition to the issue of the costs and benefits of adopting copyright legislation in the country.