ORPHAN WORKS

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Orphan works and online teaching

Australia’s Copyright Amendment Bill 2025 sounds technical, but it will have very practical day‑to‑day effects for schools, universities, cultural institutions, businesses and anyone using third‑party content. “Third‑party content” just means material that someone else owns, not you or your organisation. It includes:

• Photos, artwork, logos and graphics created by other people or companies.
• Text, articles, worksheets, book extracts, songs, films or videos that you didn’t create yourself.
• Website content, software, slides, recordings or social media posts made by others that you want to use or share.

The Bill brings in a new rule for “orphan works” (old or unclear material where you can’t find the owner). It spells out what teachers can safely do in online and mixed in‑person/Zoom classes. We break it al down and tell you how Sharon Givoni Consulting can help you get ready.

What is an “orphan work” – and why should you care?

Think of an “orphan work” as a copyright mystery: you have the work in front of you, but you can’t track down who owns it, even after doing a proper, sensible search.

This might be an old photo with no credit, a dusty pamphlet in an archive, or a recording where the producer has vanished. “The file is there, but the owner has left the building.” Using these kinds of works has always been risky, because if the owner suddenly reappears, you could technically be in breach.

The new orphan‑works scheme is meant to carefully open the door on using some of this material, as long as you do and record a decent search and clearly say you’re relying on the scheme; it is not a blank cheque to grab anything you find online, and it is definitely not built as a shortcut to feed huge AI training databases.

In practice, the orphan‑works scheme will matter most for places that regularly handle older or hard‑to‑trace material: libraries, galleries, museums and archives trying to digitise collections; schools and universities building teaching resources; government bodies and NGOs publishing historical material; and businesses wanting to reuse legacy content where the ownership is murky. To use the scheme, you will need to be able to show that you did a genuine, timely and recorded search for the owner, still could not identify or locate them, and clearly told users that the owner is unknown and that you are relying on the orphan‑works rules.

Questions, questions…

That raises some important questions for your organisation: What will you count as a “reasonably diligent” search in your context? Which databases, catalogues, industry contacts or web tools will you use, and who decides when enough is enough? Who has authority to sign off on using an orphan work, on what criteria, and how will you record that decision? How and where will you display notices—in catalogues, on websites, on labels—so people understand that an orphan‑works scheme is being used?

Because the law is new and nuanced, and because there is no one‑size‑fits‑all answer (what is “reasonable” for a small school is very different to a national institution or a tech platform), these are exactly the kinds of issues that should be worked through with tailored legal advice rather than treated as a tick‑box exercise.

Teaching on Zoom

One big part of the Bill is about teaching on Zoom and in mixed (hybrid) classes.

It tries to clear up when schools and other educators can show or play copyright material (like films, music or text) in live online or mixed classes in a similar way to how they already can “in class”.

It is likely to cover fully online classes, hybrid classes, and some sessions run by people like museum or library educators, as long as they are teaching and not running a for‑profit event. But it still mainly applies to live teaching, not recordings that students can watch later, so things like saved lesson videos, on‑demand content and LMS libraries will usually still need the right licences or other exceptions.

The detail here is tricky and depends on your setup, your existing licences and the exact way you run classes, so it is really important to get proper legal advice before changing your policies or relying on the new rules.

How Sharon Givoni Consulting can help

At Sharon Givoni Consulting, the focus is on turning complex copyright reforms into clear, workable steps for your organisation.

The Bill creates opportunities, but also new grey areas. The line between “reasonably diligent search” and “not enough”, or between a covered online class and an infringing recording, will often depend on fine details.

Ways we can assist include:

Because copyright law is never black and white, the aim is to help you make informed, defensible decisions, not to promise certainty where the legislation leaves room for interpretation. For higher‑risk projects – for example, large digitisation programs or innovative content products – bespoke advice is particularly important.

Getting ready now

Although the Bill is still working its way through the parliamentary process, now is a good time to:

• map where your organisation currently uses “hard‑to‑clear” materials
• identify existing remote‑learning practices that rely heavily on assumptions about copyright
• consider where a structured orphan‑works approach could unlock stalled projects
• talk to a specialist IP lawyer about how the reforms intersect with your existing licences and risk settings
• If you would like to discuss what the reforms might mean for your school, institution or business, Sharon Givoni Consulting can provide tailored advice and support.

Here is what we can do for you

1. Legal advice
2. Policy and workflows
3. Review your current copyright policies.
4. Flag where the new rules change your risks.
5. Give staff clear, simple steps to follow.
6. Templates and notices
7. Create short checklists and approval forms.
8. Draft standard notices for orphan‑works use.
9. Update key contracts and licences.
10. Sector help
11. Guide schools and unis on remote classes and recordings.
12. Help GLAM bodies with digitisation and exhibitions.
13. Support businesses and creatives using older content.
14. Training
15. Run brief, practical copyright sessions for your teams.

One last word

Overall, the Bill is a welcome step towards bringing copyright law closer to how teaching and content use actually work in 2026, but it also creates new grey areas that need careful handling rather than guesswork.

It gives schools, universities and cultural institutions more breathing room with things like online classes and orphan works, yet the rules are still technical and the risks for getting them wrong can be serious.

The real call to action is simple: Don’t rewrite your policies or change your day‑to‑day practice on the basis of headlines or rules of thumb; get specific legal advice on how these changes apply to your organisation, your licences and your actual workflows before you rely on them.

Please note the above article is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice.

Please email us info@iplegal.com.au if you need legal advice about your brand or another legal matter in this area generally.