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Australia May Adopt DMCA-Style Copyright Regime
beaver1024 writes "Australia, desperate to garner more U.S. trade, has indicated that it is willing to follow a more stringent regime for protecting copyright. This follows attempts by MediaForce to force Australian ISPs to comply with U.S. DMCA provisions. I fear that due to the current Australian government's weak spineless nature, the harsh provisions of the DMCA will soon arrive in the land down under."
Well, as an Autralian citizen, I must say I'm very disappointed. I'll complain to my local MP straight away.
Thank you for telling me about this, I wouldn't have otherwise known.
Thank you
Michael
One thing that has always given me some hope with all this DMCA stuff is that it only takes one sensible country to not accept it, and development can go on (albeit hampered.) This story makes me wonder if it's only a matter of time until only lawless countries can host such things. Troublesome.
Slashdot 's editors are dickheads
If the dmca is appealed then the RIAA will bust you under the UUCD( Europe's dmca) and if that is appealed then you will be tried under Australia's laws. Why? Your committing a world corporate espionage which is protected under trade treaties.
So no matter what your fucked.
Dont believe me? Look at Jon Johnson. Through world internation commerce espionage laws he was tried by an American law. These trade laws were written to catch crooked while collar crooks and corrupt ceo's but lawyers who love to twist things now interpret it as an international law. What is scary about the EU is that its not a democracy and there are no checks or balances unlike Australia or the United States. It will stay forever and will the world under one master law.
http://saveie6.com/
I guess now would be a good time to have his email address, so I can tell him just how I feel on this matter. Oh well, the form at http://www.pm.gov.au/your_feedback/feedback.htm will have to do.
NO. I can see the -1 Flamebits now, but lets be hoenst here. People give the american govt. a lot of crap, but I think its our big buisneses that cause the negative view of america. Yes that includes the dirty "O" word, OIL. I guess many can agrue that the lobby power of these companies corupt the govt and it is in the end their fault. So lets start a new thread, which came first Big Buisness or Bad Govt? I think they are twins. :)
The MPAA must be REALLY pissed off about all of the sharing of Kangaroo Jack down under. Of course, they will most likely get their way.
*sigh*
There are two kinds of people in the world: those with loaded guns, and those who dig.
Just the other day I was wondering where I'd go next if the US got too oppressive.
The UK's already too surveillance happy.
The US is getting there, and has too many stupid laws to boot.
I guess it's time to look at NZ.
John Howard is acting more and more as one of Bush's little lackeys, first with considering a trade agreement that will force australia to reduce local content on TV (and open up more time for US shows), lately marching into and illegal war for no other reason than USA asked him to (more likely said or else!)
:)
Bah... And people wonder why the public is so dissolusioned with Pollies. they allmost all nowdays seem to be either yes men for Howard , Idiots or Cranks.... I wish some real people would run for election (and rule that PM can only stay in power for 2 terms), but we can only dream.
At least Region Free DVD players are legal here
What is it with the word Regime. It has become so popular lately. : P
Im not here now... Im out KILLING pepperoni
...but fear itself!
beaver1024 is actually C. Little.
As an American citizen I should tell Autralia not to fear us. We won't bomb your asses unless you give us damn good reason to.
The MPAA may be sleeping with congress, but they can't afford the needed bribes to start a war. So long as we keep pirating movies they never will and the world will remain safe!
I hereby confess to reverse engineering magnetic tapes. It was an act of civil disobedience. Come and get me.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Check out this article from the Sydney Morning Herald, Piracy not the burning issue in CD sales slide: ARIA
I amazes me the lengths the Howard government will go to in order to suck up to the US.
Australian? Join EFA
Trust me, I live here :(
If it's not Telstra fucking us with a Microsoft style monopoly, or "protect the people" revenue rais... whoops speed camera's - then it's senator Alston making us look like nearthandals tech wise "high speed internet is used only for porn"
Then there's a new tax / levy introduced tri-monthly to help out some band of poor bastards - course they never see the money but we still get our wallets bent over and plowed.
(I'm surprised I can still browse slashdot actually considering that "ISP's must ban content" clause that the government passed several years back.
Oh oh and we pay a SHITLOAD for cars here too, like 15 metric assloads for a car, that's right this BIG fat country with 20 million people and you can't find a decent second hand car under 10,000$ - but our backwards sheep plowing neighbours in NZ can score ex Japanese imports in the 6000$ (NZ!) range... wheeeeee
(sorry for the rant but I just have to do it now and then)
I love this country *COUGH* (I've said this a million times now, but is there ANYONE out there in the states with a spare basement for me to live in!?!)
I'm a longtime Australian resident, and have been saddened to see more kowtowing to our 'big brother', the United States, instead of seeking out our own identity and place in the global marketplace.
This possible DMCA "adoption" is another example of us bending over backwards to please our economic partners.
I had high hopes for us when our Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) started defending our rights against DVD region encoding. Looks like we need to do more campaigning to wake the public up before this new movement gets too far.
Man watching 6 MSCE's around a sun box, looks alot like the opening scene's of 2001:space odyssey...
will never know the simple joy of monkey knife fight, err non-commercial dvd players.
Doesn't Homer just inspire the best in us? Anyone have a yacht and 13 miles of CAT5?
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
This is surprising, of course, because of Australia's typical dedication to its citizens' liberties (e.g., gun control).
I'm sick of worrying on behalf of pirates.
If the internet industry has to subscribe to a take-down notice system then so be it.. annoying as hell and costly to their bottom lines, but why should they protect some bottom-feeding pirates who abuse their networks?
I do worry about the fair-use principals of legitimately purchased copyrighted material, and the ability to reverse engineer for reasons of compatibility.
Australia already has an equivalent of the DMCA, in terms of circumventing access controls and so on. In Australia, there are no fair use clauses for duplicating your own CDs (except software), or even for videotaping from TV. And now this, which will just hamper ISPs and make it cost more for them to do their job. Typical weak Aussie government bending to the slightest hint of international pressure. On these rare occasions, I wish I lived in a country that valued individual freedom a bit more highly compared to corporate interests.
An opinon peice from Ross Gittens (a noteable economic commentator) titled Free-trade agreement is Howard's ticking bomb does not look kindly apon this agreement.
A choice quote: Contrary to appearances, bilateral FTAs don't rate as micro reform because, as any textbook will tell you, they're more likely to be "trade diverting" than "trade enhancing".
Australian? Join EFA
I guess I won't be moving to Australia. *checks another country off a small list*
I was hoping I could escape our (America's and the rest of the Western world's) crazy possible 1984ish future by moving down under. I would still like to see New Zealand though. And they seem to be stubbornly American independant according to a kiwi friend.
"That's a bloody outrage, it is! I want to take this all the way to the Prime Minister.
Hey! Mr. Prime Minister! Andy!"
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/2F13.html
For every higher wall there is a taller ladder
Hell, I said 'record'. Now I'll have to pay a fine of $250,000, undownload my 600 mp3s, sell my 12x CD burner (equivelent to 347) and have to move my offices to the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.
Where's the safe haven for "hackers", "reverse engineers", and decrypters? There must be some place that has:
1: 1'st world type living
2: Somewhat bustling computer community/advancement
3: Decent economy
4: None of these "DMCA" laws
And dont answer Sealand. It's way overcrowded (for a cement pole in the ocean).
Not trolling, but this point in the game it might really take a country that doesn't give a shit about US bs-laws, and who is a huge market, to avert this kind of crap.
I know the knee-jerking is that "oh it's a terrible regime" and "human rights" and "think of the children" and so forth, but really though - China didn't think so much of DVDs, so they went ahead and defined SVCDs - not as nice and versatile, but pretty good standard, useful.
I mean with all the trade agreements in place, US can pretty much enforce DMCA on everybody through trade embargos and get away with it... No hope for these guys standing up to the US in these areas.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
This is bullshit. A 'law' like the DMCA only makes sense in 'the-land-of-the-free' where $$$ rule more than anything else.
I wonder if the U.S govt appreciates just how f**kd off ordinary nobody-non-us-citizens like me are getting with them.
I dont dont have much money - but more and more I'm determined to make sure none of it goes their way.
No seriously, this is getting sadder and sadder. Does Australia even have a body analogous the EFF to lobby against this ? Someone really oughta step up and question the validity of a law which so blatantly throws consumer rights out the window.
The whole system is screwed, I tell ya.
All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand.
Check out Electronic Frontiers Australia, our equivalent to the EFF.
Man watching 6 MSCE's around a sun box, looks alot like the opening scene's of 2001:space odyssey...
opyright.org.au doesn't seem to even consider fair use at all, so I don't see how you can immediately conclude that there aren't any
TV programs: home taping (PDF)
I cannot reproduce the text here, but suffice it to say that Australian copyright law's "fair dealing" exemption is limited primarily to "research or study" and does not apply to home video taping of a copyrighted work of the sort commonplace in the United States of America after Sony v. Universal established the "Betamax Doctrine".
Will I retire or break 10K?
When the U.S. is reduced to its last surviving companies, it will be the producers of media that have spent trillions of dollars in the pursuit of an unstoppable monopoly on 'content' and the profit that follows.
Will there be U.S. Steel plants? Refineries? Agriculture? No. Will any durable good be manufactured in the U.S. No.
The only thing that other countries can't compete with the U.S.: the creation(in the loosest sense), distribution, and consumption of U.S. made MassMedia.
The war on terrorism is already a poor excuse for a reality-TV show, the war on drugs is an effort to direct your 'escapes' to more profitable, advertising-rich video and movies; the war on piracy is nothing more than a giant squeezing blood from a stone.
When all that is real has been lost to a soft, dehumanized, videodrone people - that is when the countries who have made the shovels, dug the ditches, grown the food, built the roads and cities in the U.S. - that is when those countries will walk in and quietly pick up the fallen reins of America, and sense may return.
I think I just choked on a pretzel.
anyone?
... Fuck.
I must say that slashdot's ongoing obsession
with everyone's "right" to steal copyrighted
content is becoming quite wearisome.
If you want to listen to some music then
go and buy the damn CD. Is that so hard
to understand?
Hopefully not, because then we can get rip of
all this deceitful and transparently
self-serving whining.
Who will be the first to file charges against IBM for attempted development of a device which will render all existing crytopgraphy useless? The handy side effect that Quantum Computers make factoring trivial should be enough to use legal means to halt all further work on the devices. The lawsuits should be filed now, before the threat of the Quantum Computer is allowed to fall into the hands of hackers and terrorists everywhere!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
.. where noses are as brown as the soil.
In all reality, Australia -- as well as New Zealand -- has been the United States' bitches since right after WWII.
s C: mondediplo.com/1999/01/04echelon+australia+united+ states+echelon&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Remember Echelon? Back in 1947 the U.S. and the U.K. signed the Ukusa (really creative name) agreement that was soon after signed on by Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This basically cemented the major former U.K. colonies and English-speaking countries as the axis around which the future world would spin.
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:OU6RBkDIMK
Despite the occasional noise made by various MPs, PMs, Congressman and other politicians, there is a stranglehold of a tie between those 5 countries that will be almost impossible to break.
The U.S. leads because of the simple fact that they are the biggest, baddest and richest. (Usable natural resources, military, population, economy, etc.) The others may not toe the exact line, but everyone moves in the same direction.
Minor dissent is allowed, because it gives the illusion of self determination and national sovereignty. Major dissent never happens -- not over anything important.
The rest of Europe and Russia bitch because they aren't that important anymore. The world no longer spins around France, Germany and Russia. They are being pushed to the sidelines. Hell, they did it and now it is someone else's turn.
Sad, but that is the way it works.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I am an Australian citizen, but now call New Zealand my home.
I really really hope this brown-nosing with the U.S. doesent rub-off here, after all NZ has continually told the U.S. to keep it's nuclear-powered warships out of it's harbours, regardless of incentives offered by way of trade agreements.
But now that things like LOTR are so hot, and sponsered so heavily by holywood, I wonder how long NZ will be a DMCA-free zone. Not long I bet.
It'll be interesting to see how long it will take the DRM 'cancer' to spread throughout this part of the world.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Come on...there must be thousands of people chompin' at the bit to illegally copy "Kanagaroo Jack".
Something needs to be done...
Although I do not doubt that we will get a watered down version there has been too much bad publicity (at least in the circles that care/understand) about the problems with the DMCA that we shouldn't end up with such draconian measures. Also we have the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commision) who have done a good job looking out for the little guy in the past ( with a fair amount of thanks from the community), and I dont think that the opposition party is willing to risk further destroying our rights and alientating the constituents for the Liberals policy glory.
nich
*Senate - We have a two house sytem, Lower House and Upper House(Senate). The government is whoever holds the majority in the Lower House, currently Liberal Party (mainly look out for big business and John Howard(Prime Minister) is seriously Bush's lap dog.
37 - what does it stand for really...
I still mean that part about soldering irons, though.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
In US's current administration, oil and gov'mt are the same thing.
Don't forget that, via Southern Cross, those "backward New Zealanders" provide your country with most of it's Internet capacity.
Without New Zeland, you Australians would have more time to be doing this
In return, the US should implement Australian style restrictions on corporate donations to political parties, and European style data protection laws.
Australia may make concessions to the US to maintain favorable status, especially after that nasty bit of terrorism, but I suspect Europe will smile, nod, and tell the States they can shave their arse cheeks if they like.
The US isn't making any friends right now in the U.N., that's for sure. This is not corporate agenda, by the way, this is political. "You agree to a localized version of the DCMA, and we won't put you on our Suspected Harborer of Terrorists List," or some offer of that nature.
It's just fucking lovely when the government co-opts a corporate campaign for political gain. Hey, that rhymes. I see T-shirts and mugs in my future....
Now I can see why much of the world sees the US as a bunch of imperialists. Everything we do, we just gotta export, including political correctness, blue jeans, and that steaming pile of shit we call the DMCA. And anybody that does not toe the line, we either bribe with incentives or threaten with bombs. We need to fix our own affairs, and most importantly to the rest of the world: mind our f*cking business!
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
Is there anything Johnny won't do for his master, Baby Bush?
We go fight the US's oil war without investigating the facts or paying attention to popular opinion - here or abroad.
We accept thee US's GM crap for sale on Australian markets, unlabelled.
Now we accept the US's legal system, including their DMCA.
We might as well burn the Australian flag, loose 50% of our brains, adopt a "GIVE ME, GIVE ME" attitude and call ourselves the 53rd state of the USA.
So welcome George Bush; Australia's collective anuses awaits your shrivelled tool. I believe John Howard has already had his share.
Is that still there at the crossroads?
Seems as though We (australia(n)(s)) are just becoming another state of the US. We may as well just start paying the IRS instead of the ATO.. (http://www.ato.gov.au)...
The DMCA is going to stop at the economic boundary of New Zealand.
HERE, & there, buy Godless phonIE payper liesense peddling whoredoggIEs, from the fuddles&fudstorm annex of the evile kingdumb. EVERie daze, for OVER 4 years now. EVERY day, ALL day. the chaNT gooes on: "fud is gooed, nothing else matters". all day, EVERY DAY. that's just on the NYT(TMp). yuk.
U TF -8&q=microsoft+%22bill+weisgerber%22&btnG=Google+S earch
billwg - 10:00pm Jan 27, 2003 EST (# 6195 of 6200)
So you are saying the Office API's design is inherently insecure?
I am saying that the Office API's design is inherently open to anyone who wants to use it to customize their personal use of MS Office. That allows them or their chosen supplier(s) to make calls that can automatically e-mail information to preset addresses or lists. If the user is tricked into running a rogue program, the rogue program will have access to the same APIs and that is the mechanism that the script hackers use to send these mis-named viruses through the e-mail network. They are really mail bombs that do something destructive when inadvertently run by the unaware user.
I think that the APIs are useful things that cannot be secured without losing their utility. What do you think should be done about that? Curse Microsoft for providing them in the first place? That seems to be the choice of the anti-MS crowd, but they are gaggling geese with little to recommend them.
With that number in mind, it should be clear why linux is eating Unix' lunch first. One, MS doesn't get that lunch. Two... by the time linux is done with that it will be an 8000 lb gorrilla. MS's air supply will be in jeapordy.
Amusing, if you have little taste and less alternatives, but if you check the financials, MSFT doesn't seem to be missing any lunch at all. The total annual inventory of the Linux food hamper is about 1/10 th of a single day's ration for Mr. Softee and that may very well be less than what they throw to the pigeons for their own amusment. A gorilla would surely starve on such a ration. It seems as if the European versions of the linux monkey have already been reduced to mostly skin and bone and are in the processes of checking out of the game.
If Linux on Intel can do what people are using Solaris on Sparc to do, for a tenth the cost (literally!), excuse me, but Linux is SUPPOSED to win! If I miss Solaris (and I will), that's secondary.
Surely that cannot be the case! But if it were, what reason would anyone have for not selecting Windows more often than even now? What is it that people think needs doing that Windows doesn't already do?
since maybe 20% of the people have taken it upon themselves to use Linux or Max OS X.
Who are "the people"? One out of 5 at your company? In the real world, it's more like 1 out of 100 (if we accept the Google count) or 1 out of 400 (wherever that click site is). Linux can grow to 1 out of 10 and not really affect Microsoft's business. Certainly even I don't expect Microsoft Windows to have it ALL. But Microsoft vs whatever's in second place (currently Macintosh OS9) is an incredibly strong winner.
Why my feeling of relief and predicting MS's demise. Clearly I may be wrong over all. But the feeling of confidence comes from the fact that Linux has checked Windows encrouchment on the server.
Where has that happened? Last count MS was actually growing faster in absolute (unit) terms than Unix/Linux although their percentage is swamped by their already high share. I would rather think that such a sharp decline in available case, which translates into layoffs for the Unix developers at Sun and such, which translates into less of an inclination to help out the open source cause and more of an inclination to find a new job, would weaken the future capabilty of linux to match the continuing evolution of Windows.
--
to read moron ?dr? weisgerber's ?work?:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=
--
look for: va.msn.?net? ticker (VAST) [trustworthycomputing.com]?
lookout bullow. the WINds of (small) change are howling at the gates, again.
What's good for US is good for AU and ALL. US is the most respected well liked imperialist on the planet. It did after all bring you Linux (originally a US product), the aeroplane, automobile, train, powered water craft, and big-boobed babes. AU has brought us... Kangaroo Jack. I'm going to be sick in my clockwise rotating toilet bowl.
.
a little harsh to call the Australian leaders names considering we americans let some F@#$% A$$ from ArKansas pass the damm thing to beguin with.
no it was not Bush who passed it.
Duplicating the idiotic corporate laws of the U.S is John Howard's way of saying - we're open for business friends. Unfortunately he'll probably run the country into the ground duplicating Bush.
Ever since S11 or maybe even earlier it seems that John Howard has been trying to make Australia another state of the U.S. He has adopted more fucked up foreign policies than any other Prime Minister in Australian history. He is blindly supporing the U.S's war on the world because apparently it is the best security we have. If you want to hear the echo of Dubya look no further than John Howard and Alexander Downer (and Tony Blair).
Alexander Downer (Foreign Minister) wins the award for saying "I think", "Probably", "Perhaps", "The question you should ask is", "It could be", "It might be" the fucking most. This guy can never provide an answer with absolute certainty. If your Australian then look out for it. He also comes across as being Gay and a know it all. He'll make the U.N his friend when he wants to and when the U.N accuses Australian of poor human rights the answer is "we don't tell the U.N what to do, they shouldn't tell us what to do".
I was born in Australia, still live here, and right now am ashamed to admit it... our government has its head up Bush's arse - supporting the latest imperialist initiative and every other boneheaded concept out of the U.S. - and the only thing that mitigates my shame at being Australian right now is the knowledge that I didn't vote for the idiots in power. Europeans built this country - why can't we look to them instead?!
This became apparent when one of the ISPs in Australia refused to comply, and went public. They showed the contents of the letter, which included the demand of immediate halt of the customer's sharing, but also the immediate cessation and severing of all business relationship with the account (identified by ip address/date/time/files/etc.)
Here's the exact quote:
This goes far beyond so called "copyright infringement". This is a punitive action made by a very embittered (and according to their own sales figures, very greedy) RIAA/MPAA.
As someone who's had their dsl plug pulled on three days notice, and have been waiting more than three weeks for a new dsl provider to get permission and get switched on from the local telco, I can tell you from first hand experience the problem this causes.
If one of my children downloads and installs a p2p program, and keeps the defaults as installed, I get to have my plug pulled? All of my web sites taken down? My email server cut off? My remote users cut off? My dns server that other networks rely on as a second dns server shut down?
A careful review of the users of the p2p programs would show that the majority of the users are children. As defined in the US, children are under the age of 18. As defined by many of the "save the children" advocacy groups, children are under 19, under 21, under 25.
I've been working on getting a CD burner working on my computer, but have had problems because of the unusual ide/scsi multiple hard drive setup I have. So it is not working under gnu/linux, and I've been making coasters under windows. I have a large collection of music which I own. Does the fact that I can download the same music that I own so I can listen on my computer/car cd player disallow me from downloading this music? I have the originals, just need them in a different medium. This is known as fair use. Will a default/misconfiguration of a p2p application cost me my entire net connection? Is this what was envisioned by the senators and congressmen when they signed the DMCA bill? Was this the intent of the law?
An internet connection is viewed in the US as a necessity now. Schools are handing out assignments that include mandatory internet research. Those that don't have a connection are expected to go to the library or make arrangements with the teacher. But now the MPAA/RIAA are allowed to demand that the ISP pull the plug? On no or short notice? Library hours are being curtailed due to budget constraints everywhere. Libraries open on Sunday are unusual, and becomming more so. Saturday hours and night hours are being curtailed as well. Getting your children to the library is not an easy thing for a single parent or two parent family where both parents work. So the MPAA/RIAA get to pull my plug because their automated computer thinks I'm sharing copyrighted works?
Who reimburses me when my child's school project named after a copyrighted title shows up as a dmca violation, my plug gets pulled, and I lose customers for web sites/co-location hosting/email services/voicemail services/backup services because I can't get another dsl connection running right away? Or the downtime with ip propagation through the dns servers to the root servers with the new ip addresses of the new isp account because the old isp complied with the sever all business demand by the mpaa/riaa?
As I read the DMCA act, it says that the isp must stop the sharing. I haven't read that it says that all business must be severed with the customer. Yet the mpaa/riaa are demanding this of isps. If you were a small time isp, would you comply or fight their lawyers? So you keep the connection and face mpaa/riaa lawyers, and more enforcement action/attention by them and the bsa, or you pull the plug and face a remote possibility of a lawsuit from a user. Which would you choose?
Any changes to the DMCA law must include a prohibition on allowing the mpaa/riaa to demand that all business relationship be severed. It must only include the means necessary of stopping the "infringing" use, and the customer must be given the opportunity to respond prior to the plug getting pulled.
My plug was pulled. I suspect it was a DMCA demand that caused the plug to be pulled. But a different, unrelated excuse was used to pull the plug. In the meantime, I had three days notice. What would you do, fight it out with an isp that wants to disconnect you? Or hurry up and find another isp so that you could get your revenue producing content back online? Are all of your internet travels really within your isp's tos? Including your posts to slashdot? ISPs, if necessary, have enough loopholes to disconnect you within their terms of service so that if they get a takedown letter, they simply pull the plug rather than deal with any legal issues.
Since my local telco doesn't allow servers on their dsl connection, and since they require that the service be disconnected before another dsl reseller can place an order for service, and since the order for service takes anywhere from one to three weeks, there is no way of avoiding a several week downtime. And my local telco is the local telco for most of the northeast, and most of the east coast of the US.
It's easy to say don't allow the p2p use. But when you have pre-teen and teen children on your connection, you'll think differently. And if I "share" a number of files, yet firewall off the files so that they can be seen as being shared, yet can't be uploaded from my server, that does not violate the dmca, yet would result in a dmca takedown letter. No files were uploaded from my server to anyone else's computer, they can't be. Yet the way that the mpaa/riaa is scanning for shared files, they "see" the files as being shared, and that results in a takedown letter. So I'm not violating any law, yet the riaa/mpaa get to pull my plug and cause me economic harm?
I have some limited technical knowledge. Try explaining this to a small business owner, or someone who relies on email, internet access, and some reason (web server, vpn, mail server, etc) for a dsl connection for work. They get their plug pulled and are disconnected for 2-3 weeks or longer while they scramble to find a new dsl provider because the mpaa/riaa is looking for revenge and twisting the dmca law to their benefit? Cable isn't an option as a backup, as they don't allow vpn, and don't allow servers. A second dsl provider involves extra cost, and a separate additional phone line, or line drop, and it still involves ip number/dns interruption.
Changes to the dmca law need to be made to prohibit this vindictive behavior by the entertainment cartel. A net connection is no longer viewed in our society as a luxury. It is a necessity. No one should have the right to completely pull the plug on someone's connection. There are steps that can be taken to prevent copyrighted file sharing. Pulling the plug is an unconscionable action on behalf of a very bitter, vindictive cartel, and exposes them for who they really are.
The Verizon court case, where the entertainment cartel are attempting to ascertain the identity of a file sharer is a case in point. They state that they want to find out the identity of the person so that they can "tell them what they are doing is illegal". Really? Wanna bet they want that plug pulled and want the isp to "sever all business relationship" with that person?
Those outside the US, those in Australia, take this lesson to heart. When the laws in your country are being fought out, make sure the above situation is not allowed to happen as a matter of law. The entertainment cartels will look for any advantage they can get. You need to be equally vigilant that your legislators protect your rights. And speak up. Or you will also lose in the end.
Here is the full information on the DMCA takedown letter, and I believe the story above is linking to it also, although the story link may be a higher level link. My link goes direct to the letter and background.
This is a re-posting of an original post I made. I don't like to do this, but it is more relevant here, than at the original location several days ago. Here's the story location of the previous post for full disclosure, and here's the original post. Please don't mod this down, as this is a real world example of someone hurt by the DMCA, and is very relevant to the current topic. If you agree and have a mod point to spare, I would appreciate it. Thank you.
The entertainment cartel have declared war on us. We are all on the firing line right now and are taking casualties. Good luck to us all. We are going to need it.
DMCA in the land down under? Where we'll go and then plunder? She said, are you trying to tempt me? loss of freedom's not much to pay! [then it got garbled, her mouth was full, something about a vegemite sandwich]
But with compulsory voting, , strong opposition [yes, I know that the democrats are dead] leading to the upper house hobbling the lower house this isn't going to get very far. Never mind. Thank god for three year terms of office, that's what I say.
"...we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that." B.Spears 2003
It's the safest place in the world - believe me. It's got lots of techy folks to give you company - Service for Unix was developed in India. RedHat has a local office and there's many LUGs around. There's no censorship here, people are very understanding. You will miss out on parties etc., but geeks normally do not care, I guess. Living costs are very low - you can rent a palace for $1000 a month. Don't believe all that crap about India being an impoverished, over-populated nuclear power-keg, run by mad politicians. If I go by CNN (which I see daily) I'd think the US is a huge army of mindless morons run by power-crazy self-serving politicians (and I might be wrong) . Even Bill Gates spent 4 full days here, and local IT chiefs from Wipro and Infosys treated him as less-than-equal. You get all the infrastructure you need - you can pick up a cellphone with all-India roaming at $15 per month! And since they aren't CDMA, you can get calls from all carriers. You've got our Times (Hindustan, Times of India) to stay updated. You've got the highest peak in the world and the deepest valley - you've got lots of mountains and plains - take your pick. All at prices you wouldn't dream of, sitting in the US. You can watch tennis - yeah Agassi and Roddick, Martina. You'll want to forget Starbucks as a bad dream when you taste the real thing over here, and meet real, considerate people. Come over to India, come to your new home. And if you're looking for talent to help you realise your dreams, you've got plenty here. Mail me if you wish. Peace be with you. sundaram_kr@hotmail.com
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Posted using Mozilla on RedHat7.3 - all those paragraphs have disappeared! It's just one big block now - awful. Sorry. KRS
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Australia is an WIPO signatory right? If so, there is your answer - and and every country that is a member of WIPO has to implement these sorts of laws
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Come to canada ! No DMCA here (at least not yet!)
unzip; strip; touch; grep; mount; fsck; yes; more; fsck; umount; make clean; sleep
Bruno: Ooh! Ah, that's it. I'm going to report this to me member of parliament.
[yells out window] Hey, Gus! I got something toreport to you. [Gus tends his swine]
Gus: That's a bloody outrage, it is! I want to take this all the way to the Prime Minister.
[they go down to a lake] Hey! Mr. Prime Minister! Andy!
Andy: [floating naked on an inner tube with a beer] Eh, mates! What's the good word?
I wonder if Australia will change it's copyright limits to match the US. Currently, the Aussies permit copyrights 50 years after the death of the author while (as we know) the US is now twice that. That's why you can download the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald from Project Guttenberg's Aussie site but not from a US site.
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
The DMCA is the US embodyment of the The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty (WCT).
This treaty, (probably) written by the RIAA/MPAA (literally) was approved by appointed trade representatives to WIPO. (see here)
When you see people marching as advocates of Fair Trade (like the opposition to FTAA) they are protesting neo-liberalization of trade by the WTO... so, dont like DMCA? dont want DMCA in *your* country? Join the effort to end Corporate Globalization through the WTO... the DMCA is a *result* of these thieves carving up our future.
Australians, Canadians, and Europeans: Find out who is your WIPO/WTO delegates are, and write a letter condemning neoliberalism (as embodied in the WCT(DMCA treaty)) and send copies to your PM/President and Federal Representative... ill be doing that now.
Have you actually tried obtaining one through US distribution channels?
1. Go to buy.com.
2. Buy Sampo DVE112
3. Power on
4. Press open button
5. Key in 330880
6. Power off
7. Enjoy player that now plays DVDs from any region.
[...]
8. Profit!!!
Why the hell are they backing down and complying? If anything, they should be pissed off at the US Entertainment Industry for insulting them with that damned "Kangaroo Jack" movie...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
...in such pesky little cases as United Nation votes on the legitimization of certain wars against certain oil-producing countries.
"Germany has been a problem, and France has been a problem," said Rumsfeld, a former NATO ambassador. And what a shitstorm it caused over here - did you get any feedback on that in the US at all?
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
The Australian Federal Police, in conjunction with the FBI, have confirmed that stains on one of little johnnie's suits are in fact dubya's bodily fluids.
The rest of Europe and Russia bitch because they aren't that important anymore. The world no longer spins around France, Germany and Russia. They are being pushed to the sidelines. Hell, they did it and now it is someone else's turn.
If these various DMCA-like laws keep popping up, then the world will stop revolving around the U.S. and it will be yet someone else's turn. Especially if a war is used to address the next set of quarterly financial reports. Russia is out - collapsed economically and out of control, which is why Putin kisses up. Britain is out. But Germany stands a good chance or, in a few years time if luck holds out for India, maybe even India.Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
I thought Australia was already a police state. Haven't we already read countless articles on slashdot about stifled free speech in Oz?
And it wouldn't have to stop off at NZ if it weren't in the fucking way..
Opportunity knocks. Karma hunts you down.
Ah ... love you your description of Australian geeks! It's because we're Mahoys (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ma hoy)not geeks ... big difference.
Remember that everything done to increase copyright protection makes the GPL that much stronger.
Sadly, we have known this was on the cards for a while, and one or two people who work in government in Canberra have mentioned it to me. Australia wants a free trade deal with the US, and particularly in agriculture. In return for this, we have to go along with what US trade negotiators want on issues like intellectual property, and the US government is in Hollywood's pocket on this.
The commissions which are corrupt like the American polical system really writes the laws and makes proposals to the parliament. The parliament is not directly elected anyway so no its not a democracy. I am sure a few lobbiest from hollywood can convince oops I mean advise various EU ministers on who to elect oops I mean appoint to the parliament.
What I would like to know is if an individual convicted under a EU law can ever be appeal his/her case to a EU supreme court to have a bad law overturned? My guess from what I heard is no and that your individual member country would prosecute you and you could only appeal to your countries supreme court which would have no jurisdiction.
I am not an anti socalist nut or anti European nut. I am just simply giving you all the facts.
You may hate the American way and view us as less free because of corruption but those lobbiest that you all laugh at are already at work in your countries! England, Australia and the EU all have lots of RIAA representatives and eventually will be just as corrupt if not more over time. How do I know this? Because our system has checks and ballances that are more ballanced then the EU. If its this bad in America now, just imagine the future in the EU in 20 years?
The American system was originally designed to be more ballanced in terms of checks and ballances. It still is. Its just that %97 of the American population are unaware of the DMCA and Americans believe captitalism and the free market means tough copyright laws which will continue propserity and job growth. We are conservative and many Americans believe whats good for bussiness== more jobs. If enough Americans become outraged at the DMCA then you bet it would be appealed. Infact an assult rifle ban was almost appealed even though the vast majority of Americans oppose the appeal. Why? Because enough of Americans who own guns even though they are in the minority elect people with their views. The people hold the power and in the EU the elected prime ministers who got their campaign money from lobbiest decides who runs the parliament. It is not direct. The less direct it is the more corrupt its going to get. Sure many europeans have great legal systems but the EU is a lawset that they have to obey if they are apart of the EU.
Europe does not have it better then the US. The comments I read here so far are pure fud.
http://saveie6.com/
You are a blithering moron if you think that just because of outsourcing that the US will lose ALL manufacturing capacity.
There is such a thing as a "strategic industry". The Pentagon knows what they are and won't allow them to go away. Ever wonder why our farmers get so many subsidies? Its one of those pesky strategic industries in that a superpower ought to be able to feed its own populace without relying on other countries for food.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
...the Hoover administration (in the U.S.) made two colossal errors which turned a recession/stock-crash/run-on-the-banks into a full-scale worldwide depression:
The corporations didn't have anything to do with the extra money (there was a recession, after all), but their stock prices were depressed. So, they decided to boost their share prices by announcing larger-than-expected dividends (paid primarily to rich people). Rich people behaved as rich people are likely to do in a recession: They put the money away, playing it conservatively.
Since the Bush administration has decided not to risk the chance that corporations will avoid depression-producing behavior by requiring them to pay dividends for their stockholders to receive the latest round of tax cuts, we have to ask, "Will this cause a depression?" We have to consider the possibility of at least a '90s-Japan style depression (if not a Great Depression like the '30s).
One thing which always reassured me was the fact that no one seems likely to repeat the mistakes of the Trade War of the Early '30s. Now I'm beginning to wonder if DMCA- and WIPO-style intellectual-property regimes may serve a Trade-War-like function today. Like trade wars, they spread from country to country, stifling economic growth (trade wars do it more directly, but the DMCA does it by hamstringing innovation).
We may have discovered the missing ingredient in our depression recipe.
Eternal vigilance only works if you look in every direction.
Why do you arrogantly assume that Americans are 50% dumber than Austrailans?
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
The actual problem with unjust laws in the US is that Americans are too lax about knowing their rights. The Jury in any trial or Grand Jury has rights and abilites far beyond the judge or prosecutor. We would not have so many unjust laws if citizens knew their power to disregard the instructions of the court and the resulting FULL and FINAL veto power over acts of legislature (laws). The government is here to service us, not the other way around and we have the final say in which laws are upheld in the courts.
If you get a summons for duty, don't aviod it... you may be passing up the ability to reject and unjust law... perhaps it will be a DMCA case itself! Just don't let the judge or prosecutor know you are aware of your veto/nullification power becuase they will strike you every time, it's your moral duty and perogative to lie when they ask the question. "Have you read anything about jury nullification?"
If you are unaware of your rights as a Juror then see this page:
http://www.fija.org/juror-handbook.htm
Phoenix
I'm not sure, but you spelt 'Austrailans' wrong.
full of cute small brunette women. I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
The sad part is that this same progressive loss of liberty has already started elsewhere, including the US. Government works best with unobstructed power, and personal freedoms get in the way of that. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I bet they will take the DMCA 10 step s farther and make it even more draconian.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
that post is ridiculous. the US provides 1/3 of the food imported by the ENTIRE world. if anyone here is being lead by the media, it's you. the US is a pretty damn big country, and simply because only the coasts get on the news doesn't mean they're the only parts of the country doing anything.
if i had mod points, i'd mod you the troll that you are.
We might as well ... call ourselves the 53rd state of the USA.
If Australia became another US state then at least we'd have gotten something in return for all that brown-nosing: the right to work & vote in the USA.
I'm sure the US would prefer to keep stringing us along as alien colonials with no rights.
The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) stepped in and ruled that region coding is considered a restriction of trade.
There is nothing wrong with having a region free player as you are still considered to be purchasing the original item (only from off-shore). The problem starts when ppl begin using duped titles (as some region free mods allow for the use of copied DVDs etc).
This became quite an interesting point recently in .au as lots of the movie houses (Universal, Warner etc) agreed that the region coding should be dropped from the DVDs. It is not worth their effort to produce 5 million DVDs in region 1 and 100,000 in region 4.
There has also been some discussion about console titles becoming non region coded too.
Because you are! Come on how else could the richest most well to do nation in the world possibly be in such a fucking mess with millions of homeless, no healthcare system and 50/50 of your budget spent on military and corporate refunding.
Why do you arrogantly assume that Americans are 50% dumber than Austrailans?
:)
1) after loosing 50% that would be twice as dumb, not 50% dumber.
2) they can't spell Australians
I'm just kidding - BTW extra apologies for blindly assuming you are American
An organisation this large must be violating this law, so why not find an example of this occuring. Serve a notice to them and their ISP. Have their connection terminated.
You can expect this to fail. That's fine, you take them to court over it. You lose, this is even better. You now have a precedent to use in another case. In the unlikely event that you win you simple make a nuisance of yourself and serve notices to all ISPs that take their business. Something has to give somewhere. The trick is in finding the violations and to keep on finding them.
(Insert non-laywer disclaimer here)
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ok i dont care that much, but still, its crap.
In the US, if you get sued, get yourself a good attorney. When you win, the other side will have to pay your legal fees.
You won't be financially ruined. (It may waste a lot of your time, though.)
Entering into a frivolous lawsuit is actually considered a pretty serious thing here.
No other nation in the Western Hemisphere has "America" in its name.
But, of course, there are other countries on said continent. And "European" doesn't refer to, say, a citizen of a member nation of the EU -- it refers to any resident of Europe. "African" doesn't refer to a resident of South Africa.
Frankly, I've always felt that using the phrase "US citizen" instead of "American" would be more accurate. The only problem is that it's too long -- "USian" solves that, however. I think I'll start using "USian".
May we never see th
I guess it's time to look at NZ.
:-) It doesn't fall under Brit law, though of course you couldn't live on the mainland if you wanted to stay outside of it...
Oh, come on. Why not try to get a job doing IT work at the largest data haven in the world?
May we never see th
It is this that causes the negative view of America. Arabs don't fly planes into buildings simply because they don't like American comertialism. Would you be prepared to take your own life for buisiness reasons?
It is these trade embargoes like against Iraq, against Cuba, against every country that dares to defy the United States. And it is the constant threat of invasion by the American army with a flurry of self rigtous rhetoric that the Australian government fears. Hell the American Governement has military bases inside of Australia with god knows what weapons of mass distruction (yes, America has them too). Out here it is kiss arse of die. If John Howard refuses to adopt American policys (like the DCMA) we may at any time be labled as a "rogue state" and part of the "Axis of Evil" and America may claim we have "weapons of mass distruction" and invade us unless they have proof that we have no weapons. Which is too bad because even if they don't find any weapons, that is not good enough, we would have to proove we had no weapons by showing them the weapons that we don't have. And if the weapons they do not turn up do not include all of the weapons they claim we have.... it will not show that they were wrong... it will show that we are hiding something.
You see the Australian government lives in fear. And your corperations have nothing to do with it.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Hehe, and if anybody thinks my spelling mistake (or mistakes?) has any bearing on the discussion - Sorry, I'm neither Australian nor American.
:)
Doh!
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It's not about being 'desperate for more trade', it's about forging closer ties with the U.S. (not that we need them, thanks to Little Johnny), staying true to the Government's philosophy of lowering trade barriers, and reducing government intervention.
I truly hope the free-trade agreement falls through. I don't think it's in Australia's best interests. But writing about it in this way is at best, not helpful, and at worst, misrepresentative and counterproductive.
-- Askari: Give JavaScript the bird.
because it allows the copying of copyrighted material, even if I just use it to make personal backups as I am legally entitled to do.
The DMCA is bs.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Can you please provide some links to back that up? 1/3rd seems a little high....
;)
Not that I'm saying anyone here would make up statistics on the spot, y'know...
Cock-sucking is a wonderful thing. You shouldn't go so overboard mate!
Electronic Frontiers Australia has just issued a media release on this topic.
it's more like 1/8th. according to the wto's 2001 trade by sector report (PDF), the US share of world food imports was 12.7% in 2000 (which is, to be fare, nearly twice the share of any other country).