‘All Rights Reserved’
The use of the phrase ‘All Rights Reserved’ is a copyright formality indicating that the copyright holder in question (of the relevant copyright material in any given situation) reserves, or holds for its own use, all the rights provided by copyright law.
It is quite common to find the phrase ‘All Rights Reserved’ usually alongside a copyright notice included at the base of physical and digital materials.
By including the copyright notice and phrase, it reinforces that without the copyright holder’s permission, any part of their work cannot be used, copied, adapted, or published.
Legal Requirement
Including a copyright notice and/or the phrase ‘All Rights Reserved’ within a copyright holder’s materials is merely a personal choice that is not legally required and has no legal implications in Australia.
Practical Benefits
Notwithstanding that there is no legal requirement in Australia to include the copyright notice or phrase in materials, a practical benefit may be that readers unfamiliar with copyright notices may become deterred from using a copyright holder’s materials.
Further, failing to include the copyright notice or phrase may result in individuals, through their lack of awareness, unwittingly breaching the copyright holder’s copyright (that may have otherwise been avoided).
