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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."
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. :)
I dunno...
I'd like to believe you're right, but it seems to me that if only one or two or even a few countries hold out against the DMCA, that these countries will face trade pressure as the article points out Australia is facing - only worse, since in this hypothetical future scenario we're talking about the majority of countries having already given in to DMCA pressure.
Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
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
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.
Well, I've never tried complaining to my representatives yet, but I think I'm about to start now. Between this and the proposed new tax on blank media, enough is enough...
Join the EFA!! (Electoronic Frontiers Australia). At $22 AUD a year it's cheap at half the price. Better yet, $110 for a life membership.
Please don't use 'pirate' when you really refer to illegal and/or controversial trading of copyrighted files. It's too emotive. File sharing is not pirating - no one is hurt, only helped, including the media giants, through extra sales and publicity.
That, my friend, is the truth. Yes, I'm being an Anonymous Coward.
9. Convince the police to conduct a raid on all MP's houses, and punish them for 'time-shifting' and owning old tapes copied from LPs by charging them $50000 per item.
I mean, seriously, has anyone here not taped anything from TV? Recorded something from the radio when you were 7? If John Howard claimed to never in his entire life had a single infringing item in his possesion... I wouldn't believe him. He's just not saintly enough (take this proposed legislation, which should be shoved aside, not even 'considered', for instance).
Posted by DanUltra
True to a degree.
.NET & Visual C# .NET to name two). If there's student editions, I'll buy them too.
If there's software I want within an affordable range for me (as a student), I'll buy it (Visual C++
Otherwise, I'll download it off the Internet.
Am I a criminal because I pay for what I can afford, but download ('pirate' some might say) what I can't afford and thus wouldn't buy anyway?
In the eyes of federal/state laws: of course I am.
It's my responsibility to understand my country's laws. Even if they don't make any sense.
So, my vote helps determine whether John gets to even be in parliament next election, much less PM. As such, I have at some level or another greater access to influence John than the rest of the Australian population.
However, all I see in this thread are rantings: "this sucks", "Australia is the US' bitch", etc. While these point may (or may not) be true, they are hardly convincing arguments.
So, if you were in my place, what would you say to your local member of parliament AKA the Prime Minister?
(Only rational responses need apply.)
Read reviews of shopping cart software
No one is going to start a trade embargo over devices to copy Britany records. There are far more essential and profitable trades going on between countries. Why jepordise that just because they won't implement the same laws as you WRT digital media?
Trade works both ways. If (for example) the USA was to embargo imports from country A, then you can be sure that country A will stop importing anything from the USA. Where's the sense in that? It will harm more businesses than it benefits. If the government passes that, it's more corruped by the green of the RIAA than we thought.
In return, the US should implement Australian style restrictions on corporate donations to political parties, and European style data protection laws.
Yes we have a long standing dedication to our citizens not being shot in a drunken rampage by a bunch of rednecks/depressed teenagers/psychotic public servants/whatever the flavour is today.
Bringing it back on topic, I am still trying to understand why they didn't tell Warners to go and stick their Cease and Desist up their arse. The DMCA has no force here and nor should it. If they don't like it perhaps they should talk to mini Bush and try and get him to actually look at the concept of free trade, as opposed to everyone else open up your markets but we are going to tariff the shit out of your exports.
What makes you believe that the EU is not a democracy? The EU is a loose union of independent nations, which are all democratic - some more, others less.
In fact, some of the EU nations are definitely more democratic than the USA. Especially Norway, where Jon has been tried (and won, though appeal is on the way).
In these countries, elections are not a commercialized spectacle or a farce. Courts are not just the brainless muscles of the corporates, and individuals do stand a chance in court. After all, legal expenses in Jons case were born by the public system, he wouldn't have faced ruin as he would have in the states even if he would have lost.
It is rather issues like Sklyarovs illegal detention (by international legal standards) that scare me and reveal which country respects basic human rights and which doesn't give a hoot.
Horst
...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.