In his book, True History of the Kelly Gang, the Australian novelist Peter Carey retells the story of Ned Kelly, weaving fiction around the history and mythology of the infamous Australian bushranger.

In The True History of Copyright: The Australian Experience 1905-2005, Benedict Atkinson engages in a similar exercise of historical revisionism. Relying upon historical records, he seeks to interrogate the orthodox account of the evolution of Australian copyright law. Atkinson is critical of the standard, unexamined dogma that creators and producers will not engage in cultural production, without the protection of exclusive economic rights under copyright law:

"Official orthodoxy about the purpose of copyright regulation and the function of copyright regulation is not supported by historical evidence. The historical record – Hansard, government archival records and contemporary newspaper accounts and correspondence – tell a story not at all similar to that posited by copyright advocates. The economic success of the copyright industries is put forward as evidence of the necessity for copyright protection. The radio broadcasting industry operated successfully without copyright protection for nearly 40 years… The absence of copyright protection did not affect the productive incentive of copyright industries. The record shows that without protection, the recording, broadcasting and software industries grew like the green bay tree."

The author contends that “the facts of history – what legislator said, what the correspondents to newspapers wrote, and what government departments were instructed to do – support a counter-narrative of copyright”. He maintains: “According to this counter-narrative, individuals, acting for institutions or corporations, made the modern law of copyright, for their own gain and for the benefit of the coteries they served or identified with”. Atkinson suggests that the historical record provides support for a “public choice” theory of government relations.

The art critic, Robert Hughes, has observed: “’The Cultural Cringe’ is the assumption that whatever you do in the field of writing, painting, sculpture, architecture, film, dance or theater is of unknown value until it is judged by people outside your own society." Such a phenomenon has been evident, not only in Australian culture, but also Australian law.