Slashdot Mirror
Australian Gov't Lobbied To Implement Media Levies
TheScream writes "Screenrights has been activly promoting its proposal for a CD-R DVD-R levy (similar to that implemented in Canada, as previous reported on /.) with a 5 minute interview on popular Australian breakfast television show Today. News.com.au reports that Screenrights and APRA "...want a recording levy of between 3 per cent and 10 per cent..." and includes highly debateable mis-truths such as "Every kid does it, so let's facilitate some standards in the marketplace.""
This will become law sooner or later. The media companies lobby politicians heavily and usually get what they want, particularly since users aren't typically as well organzied.
The truth be told, most users are rather ignorant of the politics involved in these areas; Slashdotters are on the oppostite end of the spectrum.
What I would like to see howerver is a repudiation of anti-copy tactics currently in place by media companies. If you're going to charge users a levy tax, we should be free to make copies. There shouldn't be any impediments in our way. This will require a few courageous politicians to step up and go against the grain.
Unfortunately for us, courageous and politician are two words that don't often go together.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
Maybe someone should tell them that CDR's are not only used for Music burning but for DATA backup!
And besides that, most people that download mp3s from the internet are not going to burn CDRs from them, they're going to keep it on their hard disks. Thats the whole point of mp3, play it on your PC instead.
Sign, when will these people get a clue?
"There's nothing novel in this," Mr Lake said. "Forty-three countries including the US, Canada and most EU nations have enacted private copying royalty schemes."
...and knowing full well how myopic and sycophantic our current Australian goverment are, it will be implemented here as well.
Why the hell should I pay money to APRA when I burn copies of music that I wrote and produced?
My music is art for art's sake (I give my music away for free) and now I may have to give money to record companies, AND the artists whose music I despise the most... and don't bloody listen too!
http://jesus.everdense.com/
We might be able to get the entertainment industry off our backs if we just go ahead and give them some money every time anything happens that could possibly involve proprietary material. In Finland they want to collect royalties from daycare centers because workers sing songs to the kids. No problem. Just institute a daycare tax payable to the recording industry. Churchgoers singing hymn-ized pop songs during services? Fine, just fork over some of that collection plate to the RIAA. Cab drivers playing CDs with passengers present? Gas tax! People going to the bathroom during commercials? Water tax! [You do flush, don't you?] In fact, the simplest thing would be to collect an ongoing daily entertainment tax from everybody to cover any copyright infringement we might commit during ordinary activities. Then maybe the entertainment industry would finally ** SHUT THE FUCK UP ** and leave us alone.
P2P wasn't the music industries biggest problem. Do you think that this will really help solve the problems, are people going to buy more CDs because of this. So 5 - 10 cents per CD well a pack of 30 is at the most going to make them $3.00, while the music cd cost $10 - 20. I don't see how your going to recoupe yourself. Also the crap that the RIAA and other organizations like them is trying to pull isn't going to make people want to jump and buy a CD either.
Speaking as ain Australian, I am willing to support the proposal on three conditions:
I've never copied a audio CD or DVD in my life. I have made compilation CDs for two schoolteachers based on CDs that they own for educational purposes (I believe this is legal), but I'm willing to try if this becomes law. I promise to make it fair by adding up the levies that I have paid on blank CDs and only pirating CDs worth up to the value of the levy. When I've effectively paid for a CD, I figure I deserve a copy of it.
What do you think, APRA?
Incidentally, I'm not quite sure how you calculate what is a fair levy to pay for losses which are, in the admission of the CEO of Screenrights, "incalculable". I'd like to see how they managed to work it out.
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Ummm there is a big difference between Corporate Welfare and Social Welfare.
Corporate Welfare is where Businesses, a lot of them in no need of a hand out get preferential treatment from the government of the day through tax breaks, relaxed laws and so on in exchange for what amounts to sweet fuck all.
Social Welfare is where the government supports those members of SOCIETY who are not able to support themselves for any number of reasons, usually in exchange what they get is someone who after they have gotten over their slump gets back into the workforce and starts contributing back to the society that helped him. Sometimes you do get people who take advantage of the system but that happens with every system.
I sure as hell would not want to live in a society that let those less fortunate fall by the wayside. Darwinism no longer applies to the human race and it definitly should not apply to our societies.
You know redistribution of resources is what governments have been doing since the year dot. Its the nature of society. Without it you wouldn't have such luxuries as clean water, law and order or any of the other rights that you take for granted.
As to the moral equivelance I don't see that at all. Giving hand outs to multi-nationals with massive bank balances in no way is the same as helping people who cannot afford to put food on their table.
If you want to live in a governmentless society you're not going to find one. From the simplest family groups to the largest nations there is always someone telling the rest how to use the resources available.