Regulations made under the Act give effect to Australia's international treaty obligations to accord national treatment to works and subject-matter whose authors are citizens or residents of countries that are fellow treaty members, or which were first published in such countries. In general, copyright protection for works extends for the life of an author plus 50 years. For other subject-matter, copyright extends for 50 years from the time of first publication, except copyright in published editions which lasts for 25 years. Copyright infringement occurs when protected material, or a substantial part of it, is used in a way that falls within the scope of a right, where a licence has not been obtained and where the use is not exempted by provisions in the Act. Copyright can be infringed directly by a person, or indirectly by importing or commercially dealing with infringing items.
Infringement can attract civil as well as criminal liability.
These provisions are intended to prevent dual protection of an industrial design under both the Copyright and Designs Acts. As a very general rule, two dimensional works such as drawings, manuals, plans and the like are automatically subject to copyright protection, whereas three dimensional designs which are to be manufactured on a commercial scale can only be protected by virtue of the Designs Act, which requires a separate registration procedure.