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Australia To Adopt U.S.-Style Copyright Laws
An anonymous reader submits "Australia has just announced that it has finalized a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Included in the treaty is an agreement for Australia to implement American-style DMCA copyright laws, extensions to the term of copyright, and an agreement to move towards American-style patent and trademark laws (and we all know how well those work, don't we.) I suppose this is the misery-loves-company school of treaty negotiation."
This brings up an interesting notion. At what point does financial globalization lead to the homogenization of national laws, even horrible ones? In the past, idiocy could be somewhat contained due to the fact that different countries have vastly different review procedures and generally different sensibilities about abstract concepts such as intellectual property. This article serves as a frightening example of how financial interests may lead to the exportation of horrible ideas.
One is also led to wonder what good ideas will be lost as testing of creative ways to deal wth modern problems could be in violation of treaties such as this one.
How many roads must a man walk down? 42.
This may be 'finalised' but it has got to get through both houses of parliament, and in the run up to a close election, with any luck the Senate (the upper house) will eviscerate the "DMCA by stealth" approach. At least they didn't get to shaft the Australian pharmaceutical scheme, which the US pharmas desperately wanted to do, as it is very cheap and fair.
A link to the Australian Broadcasting Council news story on the same item.
Humorous signatures are over-rated.
Togeather, we shall drink Fosters, make fun of women, and pirate CDs. Well blokes, here from the US to down unda!
Here in NZ, everyone is upset because we missed out on a fair trade agreement with the States, no one really expects one, but every once in a while someone pops up and says there's one around the corner. I tell you what though, with those kind of agreements required, I feel better off not having one. Let alone all the sucking up Aussie has had to do to get it.
This is terrible. For a business like ours that could only exist because of the public domain this is a sad thing to see. We were planning on introducing 1984 soon and shipping it only to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but this cuts the market down for it even more.
Australia was always shit with copyright, and under the control of various copyright groups anyway. A friend I knew at university was accused of distributing large amounts of software. He had his house raided, his computers taken, his parents laptops seized as well, all under suspicion. Nothing was ever found, he hadn't (to my knowledge) ever distributed copyrighted software, nor was he ever charged with anything.
Do you think he ever got any of his stuff back? No chance. The police say they no longer have it, but aren't forthcoming about which copyright agency took possession of it. It shits me especially since he was borrowing one of my motherboards and drives at the time. All gone.
That was in 2000. There's no accountability now, I don't see this as making anything worse.
This could lead to more Anton Pilar order raids... perhaps larger companies raiding smaller companies and seizing equipment to drive them out of business.
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
Does anyone with knowledge of Austrailian law know if the Austrailian treaty will violate some of their freedoms in the way the American DMCA has violated some of the United States citizen's freedoms contained within the constitution? This wouldn't sound so outrageous if the freedoms contained within the treaty didn't really tread upon Austrailian constitution/law, but if not...
With globalization, it becomes cheaper to import goods rather than export our own. Will this result in eventually having no jobs of our own domestically? I shudder to think what would happen if this was the case.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
My question is: How will this affect Project Gutenberg Australia?
I don't imagine they will be able to recall public domain items back into copyright, but does this mean an end to the release of additional public domain works for the next 40 years (when current items released under the 50 year term reach the US level of 90 years)?
I was going to put a sig here, but I had already submitted the message.
Addresses here. Don't forget the senate as Greens and Labor together may defeat any required legislation.
Don't be abusive, but explain the problem clearly. Most pollies probably aren't even aware of how dangerous such moves are to Australia's well being.
No, make a move on him instead.
(insert obligatory sheep shagging comment here)
I live in the USA. Sometimes it's government does things right and sometimes it does things wrong. When a bad decision is made by the US government, I look to the rest of the world to show them the light... but what happens? They say "great job! we'll do the same stupid thing". Why can't some countries do something different than the US and prove that there is a better system out there.
If the world becomes homogeneous we will lose out on the benefits of diversity. Europe became strong because it was so diverse. Once it and the rest of the world is thoroughly homogenized, the world will be a worlthless clump. It will never grow. Competition and diversity breeds success.
Boo Europe and Boo the Americans for going along with them on copyrights.
-l
Help cure AIDS, cancer, and more. Donate your unused computer time to worldcommunitygrid.org. Join Team Slashdot!
I suppose this is the misery-loves-company school of treaty negotiation.
Not really, it's more of a John Howard Loves George Bush kind of negotiation. Johnny wants to be in the club with Dubya and Tony. So he sent troops, maintains the US had intelligence on WMD, defends Bush and Blair in the press, talks tough on gay marriage ('survival of the species' he says... apparently if gays marry then hetero couples will somehow lose the ability to procreate), etc. Anything the US wants, Howard wants to give them.
He has a bad case of "little man syndrome" and wants to play with the "big boys" really bad.
The opposing party brought in their biggest brashest loud-mouthed battler to face him in the upcoming elections. Of course, once they made him their candidate they said "don't be so loud or brash any more" so he's sort of impotent. It does not bode will for the people here in the land of beer and pokies.
- I am made of meat.
Wait a minute! Are we just following the lead of the British? Sending our worst criminals, the dregs of society, to Austrailia?
Don't do it Aussies! It's a trap!
Australia already has bugger all fair use rights (we can't even tape a show from TV for later viewing legally).
Now it looks like we're set to inherit all the bad stuff from US IP laws.
We'll be leading the world in fucked up IP legeslation. Things are really looking up for Australia's place in the world!
Now they're making other countries follow their laws for free trade agreements? What the fuck? Ignorance must be commonplace.
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
Hey! Here in South Australia, we were free settlers.
deus does not exist but if he does
this insignificant little Australian just wants to know if he'll get a vote in the Presidential elections. You know, now that we're a fully fledged 51st State.
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
Companies like Kazaa and others alike (no clue if there others in australia) are gonna get shafted (not that they arent already with the raids), RIAA and MPAA are going to stick their noses in there no doubt.
That is the best first post I've ever seen. I applaud you. *wipes away a tear*
Compulsary voting at that. And the implied right to free speech... as long as its several blocks away and with restrictions on volume whenever US presidents visit. Wouldn't want to make Johnny look bad to his idol.
:(
Where's Joe Strummer when we need him...
- I am made of meat.
Man, the list of countries the people of the US have to apologize to because we can't keep our stupid Government in it's own backyard keeps growning and growning...
They go through the books and replace names. The artistic value of a charachter's name is tiny in comparison to all the other stuff in a book. "Travesty" is much too harsh. Putting Beethoven's 5th in a Barry Manilow song would be a travesty. This book thing is pretty harmless.
Great. In addition to our beef and sugar farmers getting screwed (again), now we open ourselves up to ridiculous copyright laws shown to be fundamentally broken already in the US. Is this what we have to show for the blood on our hands from tagging along in the Iraqi invasion last year? There's only one good thing about this, and that is it will help hasten the demise of John W. Howard as the Prime Minister of our country. And for that I can hardly thank him enough.
You know, I've often looked at Australia as a potential future home; so much is screwed up here in the US and I just don't really want to deal with it anymore.
It's really sad to see Australia going the way of the United States. Are there no sane countries left on the planet?
Click here for the Australian IT article on this issue
(\(\
(^.^)
(")")
*This is the cute bunny virus, please copy this into your sig so it can spread
Every time the US sneezes they pass their germs on to the rest of the world. Not that the US doesn't have its moments in the sun, but in Canada we see this happening far too often - US passes Law X so we must do the same.
The root cause is twofold: US pressure either directly or through unelected world organisations, and the knee jerk reaction of our own politicians.
The US which I personally view as one of the least democratic democracys, is effectively sabotaging democracy in the rest of the world, when it uses its influence to cause laws to be passed in other countries. This is a dangerous game in the long term. Undue influence on the policy in other democratic countries erodes democracy worldwide, and whatever George Bush may think, makes the world a little less safe in the longer term.
I sometimes wish I could boycott politicians like I do the RIAA :)
Why some people on the right have feared "one world government" for decades.
"One world government" is a great idea as long as *I* get to choose the form of government, eh?
is fairly dull and doesn't really mention such grand concepts as freedom.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
The whole country could divided into regions, each consisting of 1000 people. That makes around 10,000 regions to cover all letterboxes in the country. We need to find 10,000 Internet connected sympathisers, one living in each region. These people join a mailing list. Material to be dropped is sent to this list (digitally signed for verification). Each person prints 1000 copies at their expense and delivers promptly to all 1000 letterboxes in their region.
The hardest thing will be to agree on the material to be distributed. It should not be extreme, but plainly and simply put forward, in an irrefutable way, that extentions to copyright are not in Australia's interest. Try to keep party politics out of it and keep to the issue.
I don't have the resources or know how to run such a mailing list. Any volunteers (preferably based in Australia)? I'm in Sydney. If lots of people step forward, it will be light work. I don't hae much time, but even if I help get this kick started, by prompting people to come forward, then step away (I'm going to try not to) from it I'll have done my bit.
If interested send mail to copyrightaustralia@yahoo.com. Ideally the people who run this will not be into party politics, but will care passionately about copyright, IP and Australia's well being.
Apologies for the typos, but I am trying to get this out early to attract Slashdot's attention.
and now we are fucking convicts again :-/
We played dungeons and dragons for 3 hours.....then i was slain by an elf
Australia is having some problems in adapting to globalization, specifically with technology development.
Granted, Australia is a faily isolated island, but many industrialized countries are using Internet and telephone as though they are commodities. Last time I looked at pricing for such services in Australia the costs were astronomous.
With the possible adoption of this DMCA type legislation - which has slowed some technology research in the US - I don't see this helping Australia to modernize its economy. Unless of course, the free trade is really beneficial. While Canada and Mexico might have benefitted from NAFTA, it was only because the US knew it was to its advantage to use it. Now, Australia will be used too.
If your incredibly qualified, your welcome.
If your incredibly downtrodden, your welcome.
If your 'Joe Sixpack', sort out your own mess first.
Good advice, I hadn't thought of that.
America has no goods or resources that you couldn't obtain more cheaper from the APAC region.
While America would be a wonderful captive market full of consumers, the trouble is that they are all paying in US Dollars, and due to the fiscal irresponsibility of the US Government, that is nothing but American Debt. You give away your valuable goods and services to America and they pay you back in debt. Their debt, which is now your problem and not theirs, as there isn't an army big enough to force America to make good on their debts.
No, no, that's the UK.
Speaking as an Australian I can say that Australia is more accurately America's doormat.
Take for example this trade agreement. Australia could hardly get anything on agriculture, one of its biggest export areas and one where America's trade barriers really hurt. And yet we are still planning to sign it as a good deal. Personally I'm trying to work out how exactly this trade deal is going to help us at all. The farmers hate it and claim it sells out the farming industry (actually it's more like the status quo hasn't really changed ie. the deal gives almost zero benefits to farmers). The unions hate it and claims it sells out the manufacturing industry. The actors and TV producers hate it and claims it sells out the Australia movie and TV industry. The doctors are just relieved because they thought it could have been much worse (they thought PBS would be dismantled or crippled - it's still not clear whether it will be or not so the doctors are still worried). There are some vague rumblings of support from manufacturers but it seems more like some will benefit and some will be hit badly so it's a toss up whether manufacturing as a whole will benefit. Trust me, we're a doormat.
I mean geez, Howard, if you're going to send troops to Iraq to support an unpopular war, couldn't you at least get some financial benefit from it? And I thought he was a smart political operative. I guess his love of Bush (trust me even conservative Murdoch-owned newspapers here put in cartoons showing Howard worshipping Bush in bed) over-road his political smarts.
We want our oppressive laws to spread across all the world. By "we", I refer to the media cartels that run my country.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Singapore's FTA with the US came into affect on 1st Jan. It looks like the US is making it a matter of policy now to ram the DMCA down trade partners' throats.
See here: http://news.com.com/2100-1025-1000154.html
S.
Sometimes when I imagine myself eating her out, I bob my head up and down, like I'm sucking a cock. Does that make me gay?
The artistic value of a charachter's name is tiny in comparison to all the other stuff in a book
Who died and made you 'god of what's important in books'? Very often a character's name is chosen for a specific reason. Be it an emotional or visceral connection, a tribute or even simply because the name sounds a particular way. But the bottom line is, it's not your or anyone else's place to decide. It's totally disrespectful.
I vote 'travesty'. Just because you _can_ do something doesn't mean you should.
- I am made of meat.
I'd always thought being outside of the US made file sharing that little bit safer - an international legal boundary to cross before being harassed.
However, one particular line in the IP agreement shows that is no longer the case:
"An expeditious process that allows for copyright owners to engage with Internet Service Providers and subscribers to deal with allegedly infringing copyright material on the Internet."
Australian file sharers, beware.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
Putting aside the onanism of having your own name placed in such works, the concept of not only having a "personalised" version of Romeo & Juliet, but changing the ending into a happy one is something that I certainly consider disrespectful.
Politas
No no no - sheep shagging is *New Zealand*, you're thinking of Kangoroo shagging
Actually, voting is compulsory. It is simply unenforceable. For that matter, voting informally is against the law. Legally, you must do all in your power to cast a valid, formal vote.
Registering to vote is also compulsory. You can't just decide not to vote without breaking the law.
Will you be prosecuted for avoiding being on the electoral role? Probably not. Will you be prosecuting for voting informally? Definitely not, since there's no way they can know.
Not that electronic/internet voting mechanisms being designed for Australia do not allow for an informal vote.
Politas
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is likely to take a dim view on all of this.
They opposed the prosecution of the Sony mod-chipper - not for piracy reasons, but for competition reasons. Playstation games are cheaper in the US, and have more range in Japan.
They oppose region coding of DVDs - and as a result almost all Australian DVD players, even from the big companies, are region free out of the box. Same reasons, bigger range, more choice.
No matter what the U.S. wants, businesses in there have no force of law here - specifically the RIAA and friends.
Fair rights laws are covered by Common Law in Australia, not the constitution.
Interestingly, a lot of things that our laws say you cannot do (such as things covered by the US Betamax case) have never been tested in Australian courts. Is taping a TV illegal? According to the legislation, yes it is. Would the legislation hold up against Common Law? We don't know.
Politas
At the end of the day, there is no way that the Liberal Coalition in Australia will ever be able to force this so-called FTA through the Senate.
The ALP have indicated they will block passage, as has at least one Independent.
Long live the Senate.
A dream is good. A plan is better.
Actually, voting is compulsory. It is simply unenforceable.
Hence not compulsory in practise! You can't just decide not to vote without breaking the law.
Australians living overseas can decide either to vote or not to vote, and they don't face penalties when they return.
The organs of state propigate the mistakes of government mindlessly and without restraint no matter how soon and vocally the minds of the governed and the wills of the informed realize the mistakes and seek repeal.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Just what do you think art is anyway? EVERYONE builds on each others art. Rock built off of blues and jazz, and those off of earlier forms still. There is no 'original artform'. We are products of an environment of prior art.
That's why copyright extensions will eventually be lifted. Not because 'we the people' don't want it.
Because in the end corporations will have restricted their OWN ability to market creativity with flexibility.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
would 'mother fuckers' count as a derivitive word? or does it have enough originality (50%) to be considered outside your copyright? Cock Sucking Mother Fuckers is 75% original.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
While it's an understandable first reaction to assume that the FTA means that we Australians will be changing laws to match the seppos, the actual wording of the section on IP rights mentions that the agreement will "work to reduce differences in law and practices, in the area of patents, trademarks and designs".
Why not reduce differences in laws between the two countries by changing US law to match Australia's?
those few machines that go 'new profile', have they been added to the domain correctly?
That'll do it.
Tariffs on some of NZ's key exports.
and a total sell out of our citizens.
All we can do is lobby the opposition parties to block it in the senate.
One of the undesireable side effects of the 9/11 atrocity was to give conservative governments world wide an excuse to enact ever more oppressive legislation and collude with big business.
We are steadily losing freedom.
Actually, this has been enforced before, have a look on Austlii if you're interested. There's a High Court case from about 20 years ago where a guy was prosecuted for encouraging people to donkey vote by placing the major parties equal last on the ballot - this was deemed to be illegal and he lost the case.
Personally I think it is a disgrace to force people to vote for a major party. We basically have a mandated two-party system.
Read Pynchon.
AFAIK, Australia should already have free trade from the US, according to what the WTO says. In that case, the US has no right to demand these other things in return for free trade.
I'm living in NZ, and the US isn't going to give us free trade either. I wonder how long before NZ has to agree to a similar thing to get trade from the US - and who knows, next Australia will tell us we have to if we want to trade with them. NWO, anyone?
For example, religious freedom. The right to vote. A right against imprisonment without trial except in exceptional circumstances. Furthermore, there is clear scope for significant implied rights, and the High Court has worked hard to uncover these, including limited freedom of speech.
What we don't have are clearly enumerated human rights. And that is what we need, even if they're legislative rather than constitutional.
Read Pynchon.
well, i made all the machines workgroup computers because they didn't need to be part of the domain. however the images came from machines that had been on the domain while it was still existent. i'm wondering if that has something to do with it. they keep creating new profiles like login, login.DOMAIN, login.DOMAIN.001, etc. very annoying.
No convicts - just property speculators and religious maniacs. My ancestors ran a religious commune. They were expelled from Germany for religious persecution (they were doing the persecution!)
But a significant part of Europe's copyright is the notion that the original creator cannot be entirely stripped of their rights. This seems to me to be a better mechanism for copyright - IP should not just be a commodity, but represents the effort of creation (rather than 'promotion' or 'acquisition').
I would say the problem is American big business, plain and simple.
Read Pynchon.
This is a little OT, but I have always wondered if the day would come where the UN declares that part of being a Human Rights advocate, a country MUST provide manditory goverment medical services, and retirment packages, and if the a major country, with a seat on the security council does not go along with this, there Veto is taken. That would effectivly make the US a Human Rights violater and subject to embargos. Just a thought...
Umm... what are you talking about? In Australia, s111(2) of the Copyright Act provides that e copyright in a sound broadcast, or in a television broadcast in so far as it consists of sounds, is not infringed by the making of a sound recording of the broadcast, or a copy of such a sound recording, for the private and domestic use of the person by whom it is made. So quite simply, as long as you're not recording a show of TV to copy over and over and sell, you're totally in the clear. Sure, there are plenty of things to complain about in Austrlian copyright law, but that's not one of them.
I work for a Federal Senator, and I *BEG* any Australians reading this to write to their Member of Parliament, Senator and local newspaper to raise awareness of the issues relating to IP laws in this deal.
Australians are extremely apathetic about politics and most of you probably believe that writing to an MP will have no effect, but I assure you that we read everything that comes in and the Senator reads everything personally too. It only takes a few letters to make a real difference.
They say for each letter written to a newspaper there are 30,000 people with the same opinion who don't bother to write. Don't be one of them.
Focus your letter writing on:
- the Democrats
- the National Party
- the ALP
The government is too tightly controlling of its members for anyone to break ranks, except maybe the nationals. The Democrats are probably the most important players, and the Greens are unlikely to deal on this and the ALP will make a strategic decision.
Read Pynchon.
As an Australian I'm not really surprised at our prime-minister's submissive attitude towards America. Mark Latham, now leader of the opposition and potentially our next prime-minister, once famously commented that prime-minister Howard was an 'ass-licker' while referring to talks between the president and the prime-minister.
It may have been a little imprudent to say so in front of the media, but he was simply saying what alot of people were thinking at the time. Maybe if American politicians had the courage to be so forthright there wouldn't be DMCA or Patriot or IP lawyers mocking your most basic constitutional rights so flagrantly.
Speaking of which, the 'licker' comment was made during the lead up to the war in Iraq. The assertion was that if we supported the US in their little WMD wild goose chase, then we'd be favoured in the upcoming free-trade talks (not to mention post-war contracts). I guess they stiffed us on the free-trade!
I ran a benchmark on my quantum computer, now I can't find it anywhere!
We need a PM with a backbone badly, first johnny howard got us involved in a war that was nothing to do with us, now he gets this trade deal, which not only screws our farmers as usual, but get this DMCA crap brought in here.
will johnnyH ever say no to bush
Time to start lobbying to get this crap nuked in the senate
Just a note, I accidentally used subsection (2) of that section, when I should have used (1), which covered the video portion of the recording, not just the sound portion. Oh well, that'll teach me not to proofread my posts properly.
The DMCA: Democracy Means Cash for Americans
If you outlaw the law, only criminals will have laws
Even stranger, it seems that if gays are prevented from marrying they will somehow start having children and get the birth rate up. Of course, at the same time we deny access to reproductive technologies that would allow gays to have kids.
Fuck, are people really this easily manipulated? The best thing that could happen to Australia is if something happens to Howard and he has to step down. I can't take another 3 years...
Read Pynchon.
*Language warning*
I don't care about karma at the moment.
I've been hearing this crap all day on the radio how it is better for Australia, Australians and the farmers. But behalf of all the Australians who know what it will be like with this agreement, I say FUCK YOU MR JOHN HOWARD, soon to be ex prime minister of Australia.
Thankyou slashdot for allowing me to vent my frustration.
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
...ahem, I mean 'aspirations'. If people decide that their next car will be cheaper, they won't care about the loss of freedom that this deal implies. They won't even give it another thought. If only Australians could get their minds out of their wallets and think about something that actually matters... I mean, look at the most popular shows on tv - home improvement, auctions, win a million dollars, 'lifestyle' programs... I think I'll move to Europe.
Read Pynchon.
Absolutely! Which is why you certainly won't see us looking at other brutal regimes too closely in case someone actually expects us to do something about them! Crap, if we'd actually wanted to make a stand against crimes against humanity we would have had to go into shitholes like Rwanda and Cambodia and who knows where else! I mean...what?...oh riiight...sarcasm, huh? Sorry I spoke out of turn.
Legally, you must do all in your power to cast a valid, formal vote.
You are required to attend a polling station on poll day (get your name ticked off the register) and are required to legally dispose of your voting slip. There is no law requiring me to fill in the boxes correctly and place the voting slips in the correct box.
Will you be prosecuting for voting informally? Definitely not, since there's no way they can know.
I have walked into a polling station, grabbed my forms and had my name ticked off the register, and immediately walked out, dumping my forms in the bin (torn in half several times to prevent retrieval and use) as I go. I have done this in two seperate elections so far, and have been on the electoral role for 14 years. The bin sat right in front of the electoral officer who *could* have me charged if I broke any electoral laws (interfering with someone elses vote say?). They *can't* not know about that (especially sine I go out of my way to make sure they do), and they also can't charge me with any offence, because I did indeed "legally dispose of my voting slips".
And for the record, I'm not an idiot who doesn't give a shit about who wins the election (its never the voters, thats for sure), I'm just someone who refuses to vote if there is no decent candidate, one who prays for a day when the informal vote is counted and considered a vote of no-confidence in all parties involved.
Fosters? You mean that crap beer we make just for export..? (which no self respecting aussie would touch with a barge pole?)
Australia is still mainly an exporter of agricultural goods (including enormous amounts of sugar and beef) and minerals, I live in one of the biggest cities in Australian and the biggest industry is probably tinning pineapples. As a result we'll get the DMCA for virtually no return, and the USA won't get a lot back because even at 10% less US manufactured goods are going to be more expensive than the asian equivalents of similar quality. About all the extra stuff the USA will be able to sell over here is agricultural goods.
I read with some concern that the Free Trade Agreement with the US will involve harmonising our intellectual property laws with the US, in particular with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. This would be a disaster for innovation in Australia.
I refer you to the following paper, entitled "Unintended Consequences: Five Years under the DMCA" by the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences .php
This paper describes the harm that has been done in the US to free speech, scientific research, and fair use since the DMCA's introduction. Introducing a similar law here would be devastating.
My own company, Southern Storm Software, Pty Ltd, would be directly affected by such as change. At present, Australian law protects those who reverse engineer a competitor's product for the purpose of interoperation. DMCA-style laws would make me a felon solely for trying to compete fairly in my chosen market.
I urge you to please reconsider, so that Australia remains competitive in the Information Technology industry, and does not become a victim of the large Copyright interests in the US who are not interested in true and open competition.
Name and address added.
http://www.southern-storm.com.au/
When a bad decision is made by the US government, I look to the rest of the world to show them the light... but what happens? They say "great job! we'll do the same stupid thing".
The problem is that the USA are a superpower.
If a country XYZ doesn't want to do as the US want, that country will be isolated to starvation.
You're right: what's the point of ridding a country from a vicious dictator who brutalizes his own population, destroys the environment, instigates war and supports terrorism unless you actually get some financial benefit from it?!?
No, you are right, we should do it because it is the right thing to do. So, when does the war against Bush begin?
Joking aside, most of the people who criticize Bush and the war are making just your point, though you seem to have missed it: We belive they started the war for their own financial benifit, not because of the goodness of their hearts. After all, they don't mind vicious dictators anywhere else.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
The ACCC's opinion does not matter. Their powers were received via Act of parliament (mostly to enforce the Trade Practices Act), and these powers can be over-ridden by other Acts of parliament.
Note that the FTA includes copyright, business investment (especially telecoms), govt. procurement and access to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. I predict that the first loss will be all our telcos, acquired by US companies so that we can enjoy crappy service and high charges because the market is a monopoly.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
(1) Agreed. (2) Not sure. (3) Yes, but with US support on both sides (Iran-Iraq war). (4) False.
1983 HANDSHAKE #11 4912
http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=
2003 HANDSHAKE #2
http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/us-and-uz.htm
There is no realistic way Australia could get its way on sugar to any meaningful extent. Sugar is a key portion of Florida's economy, and Florida is both a key election state and governed by Bush's brother. Nothing is going to be allowed to threaten the interests of the US' domestic sugar producers.
To get even the most token concession on sugar would require Australia to make enormous concessions to the US in many other areas. The token concession might make it look like Australia got something in the deal, but in raw economic terms it wouldn't be worth it. It wouldn't be allowed to be, because domestic sugar's influence on the US administration is too great.
...And all I got was this lousy trade agreement.
In South Australia now, your literary works can outlast your corpse - burial plots only last 50 years (Hopefully that's pretty much the same as death + 50 years)
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
I think what you might be trying to say is that a small, but vocal, minority of businesses are trying to prevent the progress of science and useful arts.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
How far does harmonisation (harmonization?) extend? Do we have to follow the moronic Yanks and drop "evolution" from our school curricula now?
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
The Parliament of Australia is debatting the adoption of the Star-Spangled Banner as the country's new official flag.
When this was first mentioned, I spent some time reading up on the topic: I might as well share some links here.
The only organisation that I could find actively lobbying against the dilution of Public Domain rights in Australia was Australian Library and Information Association, a professional organisation for librarians. They are following this issue, and may appreciate your input and support; their online journal also contains an insightful article by an Australian National University professor of law on copyrights and public domain.
As other have pointed out, the retrospective extension of copyrights from Life+50 to Life+70, which even those advocating a longer copyright term admitted had no justification, is of particular concern to Project Gutenberg of Australia (site seems to be down at present--anyone know why?), which had published a number of until now Public Domain works on their site (for instance, the works of George Orwell). There's already some discussion of this on Distributed Proofreaders (registration may be required)--if you're a DP'er, you might like to contribute, and if you're not a DP'er, you should be.
HTH
Riiight. It worked for you guys, after all...
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Guess we'll end up in Guantanamo if we're not careful...
I know, it's a controversial idea. :)
/. readers, get *off* /. and get cracking on those submissions! Or, perhaps, get involved with some organization that's likely to put together such a submission and contribute. Or at least let them know it's an important issue. The Australian Computer Society might be a good place to start, for example. While you won't get rid of this completely, you may help mitigate it so that it's not ridiculously sweeping or draconian.
From the article:
Tighter controls on circumventing technological protection of copyright material together with a mechanism for examining and as necessary introducing public interest exceptions in relation to technological protection measures, along with a transition period to provide the opportunity for public submissions in this area, as well as other measures in relation to circumvention tools
From this paragraph, it appears that the government would actually like to hear what the problems are with legislation that outlaws software that might potentially be used to infringe others "intellectual property". At least they are aware that this may cause problems, and I see this as a good thing.
So, Australian
All that is required for evil to flourish is that good men only rant on Slashdot (or something).
Because you are absolutely naive if you think Howard cares at all about the people of Iraq. He didn't say anything when the Kurds got gassed. Before the war, during the war and after the war he demonised Iraqi refugees and tried to send them back to Iraq so that Saddam Hussein could kill them. He even lied about Iraqi refugees throwing their children overboard in order to get re-elected. This was a huge scandal in Australia. So during the last election he was willing to sacrifice Iraqi refugees in order to get re-elected. Do you really think he gives a damn?
I seem to remember him admitting that the reason Australia was going to war was to help America. Helping the Iraqi people was never an issue. The Free Trade agreement was an issue that was repeatedly brought up by politicians and the media as well as the need for American military protection. Considering this he is stupid to send troops to war without guaranteeing economic and military benefits for Australia. He really is Bush's doormat.
Well, Australia is an anagram for....
A Trial USA
I am thinking of moving to China... At least there you KNOW the government is out to screw you.
There is a fundamental misunderstanding here. People say "adopt DMCA style laws". The fact is that these laws (now enacted by the US, EU and other countries) are the result of the WIPO Internet Copyright Treaties agreeded upon in the late 1990's (1998 if I remember correctly).
What this means is that these countries long ago signed up to the treaty, it just takes a few years for legislative changes to be introduced and have effect.
Is it too late to do something about this? I'm an Australian citizen, and I'd hate to see an Australian DMC-Act or US-style patents make legislation. What are some of the best things I could do to prevent/soften it? Off-hand I can think of writing to an MP, but: which MP (senate/LA) and where are some ornce arguments that I can use to present my concerns?
Absolutely fucking hilarious. The Australian posters on this board are all outraged that they're going to be forced to adopt U.S. style copyright laws, and that our government is nothing but a spineless U.S. puppet...and your insinuation is that by adopting more U.S. attitudes and laws, that will somehow make it all better? Maybe we needed to negotiate a free trade agreement on whatever it is that you're smoking right now.
"What?!? You don't like the taste of shit? I know how to fix that! Here's some more shit for you to eat!!"
I now have the ultimate reason to dislike John Howard. I think I share the view of many in that I hope desperately that this will not pass through the senate, and that Mr. Howard will soon be out of a job.
Let's just hope that someone who is interested in sticking up for Australia, and not obeying Dubya's every command, takes his place.
Nope, not quite. From the SMH article:
Mr Crombie said even after the long phase-in period, Australian beef farmers would still fail to get free trade with the US.
"After a transition period we had expected that all beef tariffs and quotas would vanish," Mr Crombie said.
"In contrast, under the agreement beef quotas will remain in perpetuity.
"And although all tariffs are eliminated, safeguard provisions are in place.
"These will result in tariffs being reimposed if there is even a minor downward movement in US beef prices - a drop of 6.5 per cent."
So basically, after 18 years we get to sell the US another 70,000 tonnes of beef (equivalent to only two days of US beef production), and the tariffs will be right back where they started if US beef prices drop slightly (so we can't even compete in the market). What exactly does this give us?
My uncle happens to be a significant (Australian) beef producer, and when speaking to him a couple of days ago, he seemed quite optimistic about the FTA. I wonder if he still is today.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
In fact, as I understood it the problem here was always seen to be that we have no equivalent to the US Bill of Rights. Our Supremes behave as if there were rights not unlike those codified in the US document (mostly), but no one trusts the incumbents to propose a Bill without stepping on something we hold dear. That leaves us with things needing to be set as precedent on a case by case basis as the need to do so arises... (e.g. the "Mabo" decision...)
A conspiracy theory perhaps, but then again our federal government is not above grossly distorting even the most important issues (refugee children thrown overboard anyone?) to score a few cheap political points. Since no actual lives were at risk here, I doubt the federal Liberals would have hesitated for more than a microsecond before cynically extracting political advantage from the timing of the free trade story.
In the famous words of the classic Australian move The Castle, "Tell em to get stuffed!"
Oh and to add, quite a lot of these refugees are still locked up somewhere - yes including children and have been for years. Some of them have gone so far as to sewing up their lips, committing suicide, etc. The Howard government is trying to reduce their legal rights as much as possible (Wait, they have the right to appeal? Hmm, let's see if we can take that away...)
Anyone in Australia during the last election would remember the demonisation of Iraqi refugees. Man, they were a threat to the country! Evil, I tell you, the sort of people who would throw their own children overboard these Iraqis fleeing from Saddam Hussein. They are not the sort of people we want in this country. If we don't stop them now, they'd all come here and ruin this fine country of ours Australia. Only the Howard government can stop this. The opposition would let all these *Iraqis* come in. This won Howard the election (he was trailing in the polls before he started this line).
After listening to Howard demonise Iraqi refugees for years, not even the most fervant Howard fanboy would believe that he went to Iraq to help the Iraqi people. Especially since the demonisation still continues to this day. In fact his core base would probably turn against him if he started expressing too much concern for Iraqis. Talkback radio (ie. Alan Jones and John Laws) would kill him.
But doesnt this treaty have to be passed by both the US congress and the Australian parliment before this (and the other measures in it) actually become law?
We all know how most congressmen only care about money (the same money paid by big american corperations to Bush to get him to push for these nasty things in the first place) so I suspect getting the trade aggreement passed through congress would be trivial.
However, in australia, it has to pass through the Senate. Now is the time for all aussies to pressue the parliment NOT to pass this totally UNFAIR aggreement that basicly gives the US everything it wanted for nothing in return. Just like the senate has rejected or ammended several other contraveral/crappy pieces of Howard Government legislation (much to the annoyance of Howard), it can reject (being a treaty like this, they cant ammend it) the FTA. (at least I think so, I dont fully understand how this kind of thing works here in australia)
In any case, regardless of what happens, one way to protest (against this and other things including the general "bush says jump, howard says how high" moves that have been going on lately) is to not vote for howard or his party.
Why wont the farmers in america accept a "gradual reduction of protection over 15-20 years"?
Reducing the protection gradually over that long a period would give them plenty of time to either get better (and still be able to survive in a lower-subsidy/lower-tarrif/lower-protection environment or if thats not possible, to get out of farming into something else.
Once upon a time Australia, and in particular the Liberal Party did not pander to every whim of the US Govt., in fact, Australia's Govt. used to have a backbone.
It would seem this is no longer the case (well ok, it hasn't been the case for quite some time, but Mr Howard's Govt. has really taken the cake this last term).
I'm exceptionally glad I put Liberal last in the recent Queensland elections. Roll on the National elections!
In the meantime, is there seriously anything we can do to stop this ?
David de Groot Snr Systems Engineer
Stuff like this will simply be a side effect of the inernet and globalization. If you have someone in Australia able to access a server in America through P2P, you will inevitably get that person's laws along with that mp3 you just downloaded. More and more countries will start doing this as well. You can argue all you want about "my leader would never fall for this sort of thing" but the only thing that really ever motivates any politician is money, and the music and movie industries have a lot of it to throw around.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
This is yet another example of the Auatralian Govt blindly following the USA, without any deep thought of the consequences. Frankly John Howard has butt licked George Bush so many times they should start sleeping together.
damn right...except as a side effect school shooting tours also happen
[twowrongsareonlythebeginning]
speaking of environmental damage just wondering if america is going to adopt the Kyoto Protocol anytime soon ... [but on the bright side if they dont im sure no one will have to learn about the greenhouse at high school in a few decades]
[twowrongsareonlythebeginning]
Being the US's lapdog pays off once again for us Aussies ! I can't wait for Aussie companies to go wild with the .au DMCA.
Insightful, my arse. Why not claim we deserve it because we fuck kangaroos all day? That'd score as highly in the non sequitur stakes.
G'day Bruce.
Well, that's probably because most of you in your twenties move over to London for a few years and all too many end up bringing a (non-whinging, I assume) pommie back with you!
An I can know, though I am not from the UK (rather Dutch) but I live in London and the same is going to happen to me in a year or two thanks to my Aussie GF!
The european court of human rights (setup after WW2 caused a few problems with them) is NOT the european union. Many more countries are signed up to that than are members of the union.
A few things should be noted about the agreement.
:P
1.) Its an all or nothing agreement, meaning if either government does
not pass all of the agreement terms then the whole agreement is
termed void
2.) The opposition parties to the current Australian government are
all against the main terms of the agreement, because they don't treat
Australian farmers fairly especially sugar farmers.
3.) The agreement wont go through because in the long run it
favors the Americans more than the Australians in many areas.
4.) Tariffs have been lifted in Australian industries that are
slowly being moved off-shore into Asia i.e.: car manufacture
5.) The US has lifted tariffs on goods that already have a highly
competitive market in the US.
These and many more things about the agreement will see the agreement
fail to pass the senate in Australia, so as far as Australians having
to participate in the imbecilic decadent patenting and licensing
schemes of the US, all I can do is just laugh he he he he he heeeee
Arash Partow's Philosophy: Be a person who knows what they don't know, and not a person who doesn't know.
Man, I'd really like to order some classic books with fake porn star names substituted for the main characters.
....
"Stately, plump Rock Hardwell came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed...."
Imagine the possibilities
Cheers,
IT
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
...why do they call this a free trade agreement?
Yep. Why, with all the guns in the hands of civilians here in the U.S., the government would never dare pass a law like the DMCA.
Oh, wait...they did.
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
I think I've been through the same argument on slashdot tree times during the year.
It boils down to this: Some people think that a representative democracy is not a democracy..... (Meaning there's hardly any democracies in the entire world.)....While others think that democracy means that the power is vested in the people, and that the ruling body needs the people's approval. (Meaning that the Republic is a democracy)
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
Ah! Another Discworld-fan :)
"Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions." Terry Pratchett, The Truth
It's funny how the argument has degraded overseas ... that any reluctance to claim bush was lying must be 'crazy'.
Incidentally, the brits, french and germans also maintained (at least before the US started talking war) that Iraq had WMDs.
Also, there was most recently a big huff in Britain when the Lord Hutton thing came out. Turns out the brits didn't exaggerate the cause for war ... the only people lying and exaggerating were the BBC. (shocker)
There seems to be an occam's razor explanation that slipped through the cracks ... that maybe the US, british, german, and french intelligence on Saddam's WMD was wrong, and it was not a giant conspiracy that GWB evidently launched while he was still governor of texas.
As for other intelligence failures ... in recent months the US has also vastly underestimated the nuclear capabilities of, let's see : Lybia, Iran, and North Korea. Also, they didn't know Pakistan was distributing most of these weapons.
The US intelligence apparatus has some serious problems. They need to be fixed. But it doesn't even make any sense that Bush would lie about WMDs when there were other good reasons to go to war ... he would be found out right before the next election. As it were, we found much documentation that helps to explain why we were wrong ... for example, it appears that Saddam himself also thought he had WMDs.
Make no mistake, it is a serious intelligence failure. But it should be Mr. Tenet's head rolling, not Mr. Bush's.
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
We are a new Australian political party attempting to get 500 members and based online.
Our stance is that the FTA and specifically this DMCA provision runs contrary to Australia's best interests, so if elected we will strike it down.
We also oppose software patents and call for a dramatic reduction in copyright terms back to the 10 year timeframe or similar.
Visit our website, and more importantly our forum, for more in depth information and a chance to actively shape our policies.
Visceral Psyche Films
Yup! I tried to include the reference, but Slashdot cut it off, cause it was too long.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
i, for one, welcome our new overlords...
I'm just moving to Amsterdam to waste my life away with pot and porn.
I went to the shooting range yesterday and had a blast...now do I want any dick head buying a gun any time they want at a trade show? Do I want people to be able to buy hundreds of guns any time they want? The answer is a resounding, NO!
Fuck the NRA and their stupid ideals. And oh yeah, Australia is Americas Bitch...there is no doubt about it.
For Australia, the agreement includes:
- Immediate access to US markets for all manufactured goods and services;
- Elimination of tariffs on exports to the US of wheat, other cereal crops and minerals;
- Almost all tariffs to be removed from manufactured exports and the automotive industry;
- Sixty-six per cent of agriculture tariffs to go;
- The right to maintain local content rules in broadcasting and film;
- Maintenance of the hotly contested Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, although a committee will continue dialogue on health policy.
The United States will:It does appear there have been additional concessions made by Howard that are not being made known to the Australian public. It is only through the American spokepeople that we are aware of these concessions at all.
It has not yet been ratified by parliament, and the opposition is promising to block it in the Senate in it's current form.
We will see...
Q.
Insert Signature Here
Hand written letters are NOT preferred in our case. We're a new Aussie political party using 21st century technology to operate (shock horror!!), unlike the majors:
www.neteffect.org.au
Voice your disgust to us in person. We are a newly formed political party, and need your help to get 500 active members so we can run for election in the Senate this year. We're also based online, to make it really easy to contact us. Snail mail campaigns don't do much I'm afraid - better to have someone in parliament who will give you a voice in the first place.
In this case, that someone will hopefully be me, and anyone else willing to run for election this year under our banner. We are a new type of political party that WILL oppose these stupid laws, and have the knowledge base to understand their true implications.
You have a chance right now to DO something about it and MAKE this an issue at the upcoming election. So visit our website, jump into our forum and support us by becoming a member.
Visceral Psyche Films
What will happen to this? (Already discussed in Slashdot here)
Wait a minute... gutenberg.net.au seems to be offline. Were they ALREADY sunk?
I've started a new political party, using the internet as our major forum. We ARE advocating email and online response, and will be fighting this if we get elected this year.
www.neteffect.org.au
Visceral Psyche Films
They will continue bastardizing the English language.
A free trade agreement that consists of anything more than "we will trade freely with you and vice versa" is a joke. How many pages do you think this "free trade" agreement was?
Don't sell yourselves out for a fistfull of corrupt politicians. Howard is fucking you all over with this one, selling first your independance and then your jobs to the Americans.
I guess you have empirical material to back this statement up? In case you don't, shut up, will you?
There is no country in the world with an economy which is going down at a rate like yours. In case you should ever forget, this site is a good reminder.
Your country is obviously not interested in making money, just spending it. Personally I believe most people in the world would want their countries to do the opposite.
But, hey, if you believe your own statement, you are probably exactly as easy to manipulate as your goverment wants you to be. It's called patriotic, so cheers! Your a true patriot!
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
Frankly, the current government has few qualms about ignoring international treaties when it suits their interests to do so...
SofaMan -- Occasionally Battling Evil With His Mighty Powers Of Indolence.
The DMCA essentially outlaws the kind of reverse engineering which was necessary to create (and which is necessary to maintain) SAMBA and other pieces of FOSS which interoperate with proprietary software. And it just so happens that the folks who created SAMBA (hi Tridge!) reside in Australia. Now, if I put on my tinfoil hat juuust riight I can see Microsoft stomping on the one piece of software that allows the non-MS world to coexist with Windows, and just before the next version of Windows (with its obligatory changes to the networking protocols) sees the light of day. Coincidence?
To all the Americans that are having a go at us Australians; let me remind you who it was who started this crap with the DMCA in the first place.
An overview
In particular, I quote:
"Australia retains the flexibility to implement the Agreement in a way that meets our domestic circumstances, for example, providing a mechanism to introduce public interest exceptions in relation to technological protection measures."
Australia could hardly get anything on agriculture, one of its biggest export areas and one where America's trade barriers really hurt. And yet we are still planning to sign it as a good deal.
And the funniest part is that whoever signed it (and so obviously thinks it's a good deal) believes the Americans will actually honor it.
Talk to Canada to see how well that works out.
Last time I heard something like this on Slashdot was when discussing the new "DMCA-like" copyright laws in Sweden. There was much screaming and armwaving about how horrible that is, but of course, no one bothered reading it. You'll have to excuse me if I don't believe a word of this article, considering the past track record of slashdot.
The fact is that these laws (now enacted by the US, EU and other countries) are the result of the WIPO Internet Copyright Treaties
No, the laws go much further than the treaty demands. The relevant article is art. 11:
Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures [...] which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law.
(My emphasis)
These last four words are crucial. They mean that the anti-circumvention rules need only apply where you circumvent in order to do something already illegal. In that way the treaty is toothless. The problem is that US/EU and now Australia has been lobbied into outlawing circumvention under much broader circumstances, and even outlawing "circumvention tools" as well.
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
Well, this is an age-old disagreement between first principles. Personally, I take to the Jeffersonian school that ideas should not be treated as if they're owned.
Either way, the problem is that European original creator theory combined with the notion of collective creations of businesses leads to perpetual copyright, which I detest. This is why the U.S. passed CTEA anyway -- to bring us into sync with European copyright laws passed by parliaments in the pockets of their own big businesses.
It is sad and evil that Robert Frost's first works are only republished with "altered punctuation" so the copyright controllers can prevent the original unencumbered works from appearing in the public domain.
-l
Help cure AIDS, cancer, and more. Donate your unused computer time to worldcommunitygrid.org. Join Team Slashdot!
cat parent | sed s/American/EU/g
Or is it just French farmers in particular?
That's it, we're fucked!!
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
"Australia to implement American-style DMCA copyright laws"
:-(
Sorry, Australians. As an American, you have my deepest apology........seriously.
I am not really surprised; it was a seller's market, and the seller is clearly the US. If Australia wants something from the US, it's going to happen on the terms of the US.
This is also why this will be ratified by the Australian senate: because, even if the senate is opposed to the wording of the treaty, it is still in favour of the goals of the treaty. Only if the senate can be convinced that further negotiations will be an option, they may stop this.
But why would the US renegotiate? They have nothing to lose; they just need to keep calling Australia's bluff, and Australia is empty-handed.
In fact, the patent system in Australia was so bad that if something had NOT ever been patented there, it could be (Prior art was completely irrelevant). In fact, a few years ago a lawyer patented the wheel.
So at least now they have this now.
The U.S. Government has been rounding up guns for years, and the result was the DMCA and everything else. Where they haven't succeeded in actually taking our guns, they've succeeded in making anyone who owns one feel isolated and powerless.
Australia starts outlawing guns, people give them up without a fight, and wham... a couple years later you have a puppet government. Coincidence? I think not!
a free trade agreement that increases restrictions on the free dissemination of information
fits right in with the current trend
peace through war
freedom through slavery
security through fear
beam me up
That's a laugh, ain't no such thing.
Your numbers are off by a fair bit, as there are approximately 20,000,000 Australians in an area less than half the size of South America, a continent noticeably smaller than North America. The number of Indonesians is closer to 200 million than 300 million (234,000,000 according to CIA World Factbook estimate).
I'm sick and tired of people misspelling that word with an e.
The U.S. Government has been rounding up guns for years, and the result was the DMCA and everything else.
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act has something to do with weapons now? Is this to prevent people from making MP3s out of my M16?
It's your human right to share music with your peers. Let them put us all in jail.
What exactly does overly restrictive copyright laws have to do with guns? If I don't like the law, can I go shoot my MP?
But when the next election comes around, if the opposition party gets into power, would they be able to somehow repeal this trade agreement?
I'm probably being overly cynical, but wouldn't this been a leg up for the case to shutdown Sharman Networks (hence kazaa). From memory, the DMCA allows prosecution of those who provided tools to assist in the circumvention of encryption schemes tht protect copyright. At present the cases against Sharman have failed because the program could be used to distribute public domain and no infringing materials, as well as all the infringing stuff. But if you take kazaa as a tool for obtaining materials that are in violation of the DMCA, then kazaa itself becomes in violation of the DMCA and Sharman can be sueed left, right and centre. All this sucks. As an Australian, I am so sick of having American laws and policies forced down my throat. We get next to nothing out of this FTA. We get to sell beef, but so does Argentina, and they're way cheaper. We get to sell other produce, but in return, the heavily subsidised American farmers get to sell into Australia and under cut the local producers. It's already hard enough to get good local produce around here; going to the supermarket and getting an orange that's travelled more than I have will be the last bloody straw.
There's 2 billion Chinese, Japanese and Singaporeans who would jump at the chance to invade Australia and plunder the natural resources...
For several reasons.
Mainly that right now Howard would lose quite convincingly. But more importantly, because in a DD election all Senate seats are up for election, rather than the usual half, so it takes 1/2 the votes to score a seat in the upper house. That means that there is a great likelihood that the Greens would take a significant number of seats and hold the balance of power.
Basically, unless there is a very compelling reason to call a DD the electorate is likely to punish the govt. for calling one as a political maneuver.
Read Pynchon.
Lobbying and protesting have some effect, sure. But any politician who hears that you voted, or intend to vote informally is going to ignore anything you say from then on.
Politas
Agreed. So much so that my .org.au domain's are all hosted in Canada, which even after the exchange rate conversions is cheaper than hosting them here in Australia.
It's a sad state of affairs, but one that is driven mostly by economies of scale.
David de Groot Snr Systems Engineer
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/liac/hot_top
So even by that, you could have been fined for what you did. Also note that it says "In practice". That's because, since votes are secret, there's no way to know if you have marked your ballot paper correctly.
Future voting technologies may not allow informal votes at all.
The ACT has already trialled an electronic voting mechanism which had no way of voting informally. A friend of mine mentioned it as a flaw in the system, but it isn't, really. It's just enforcing that part of the law.
You don't have a duty to show up, you have a duty to vote.
Politas
I fail to understand the comment about Australia adopting a longer copyright period. Our current copyright lasts for the life of the author plus fifty years whereas American copyright is 26 years from publication, renewable for another twenty six years. Very inferior protection for the creative writer and his/her heirs and assigns. Kate
Obviously, Britain is very anti-gun, but last time I checked, there were more guns per capita in Canada than there are in the US.
the FTA has to be ratified by the Governments of both countries, so it's not a totally done deal. As much as I like Yanks, I hope that it fails, as the US with the FTA would have indirect control of more of our lives, and I don't need that.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Oh, so your solution is to SHOOT OUR GOVERNMENT?
You fucking retard.
To post: copyrightaustralia@yahoogroups.com
Webpage: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/copyrightaustralia/
2004 is an election year. America and Australia both go to the polls this year, the first time elections have been held in the same year in both countries since 1996. That's not the only thing both countries have in common. Both countries also have conservative, pro-business parties in power. Both countries have governments with a good chance of being defeated at this year's elections. Both countries have had new leaders recently emerge with their political opponents and the the popularity of these opposition leaders may have the incumbents worried. So the leaders of both countries want to look good.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
The socialist in America have tried to legislate for the gun grab for many years for every law they spin "we" stupid Americans side step or evade each tactic.
We wish that others will do the same " when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns" that old cliche will be new again when the 2nd revoution begin we were outlaws when this nation was formed and I believe that "US" outlaws will rise to the occasion again. thanks keep your chin up and rememember who is fighting with us. garying
u knobs. its not flamebait. i am an aussie. i can payout my own country
-- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
I was under the impression that IP law already sucked in Australia. Is it possible that, as bad as US law is in that area, it's still an improvement over previous Australian rules?
-Rich
While the biggest gain, for the US, is the chance for GM(US) to be able to market an export-model of the GM Holden Crewman Cross 8!
Crewman Cross 8 SUV
.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"
Here's your chance to find out:
The Constitution
as altered to 31 October 1986 together with Proclamation Declaring Establishment of Commonwealth Letters Patent Relating to the Office of Governor-General
.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"
It could also mean an end to XBOX mods (etc) and Multi-zone DVD players which are legal in Australia, but not legal in USA.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
As an American, I would like to represent America as a whole when I say for all of us: I'm sorry.
I can't find a reliable source of information on guns per capita in Canada, either way, but I can say for a fact that Canada has many times fewer handguns per capita -- people with guns (of whom I don't know any) are more likely to have hunting rifles and that sort of thing.
Yes, I'm sure America has many more handguns, but I didn't say handguns before, and neither did the previous post. It just said "guns".
And if you want to shoot your MP, a hunting rifle is almost the best way to do it (a sniper rifle is a little more accurate). Handguns are useless for clean assassinations. So if Canada isn't restricting rifle ownership, they obviously aren't too concerned about an armed revolt.
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has today issued the following press release: http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR040212.html
EFA dismayed by IP Clauses of Free Trade AgreementElectronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today expressed dismay about the intellectual property clauses of the recently announced Free Trade Agreement with the United States of America, saying they would leave average Australians at the mercy of legal action from multinational media companies, and represent a massive step backwards for Australian Intellectual Property law.
"The United States has one of the worst systems of intellectual property laws in the world." said EFA board member Dale Clapperton. "Their Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been widely condemned by civil liberties and users groups throughout the world, and now the Howard government has committed itself to implementing its worst, most insidious provisions."
US copyright terms have been extended multiple times at the behest of lobbyists, and now extend to 120 years from publication, a period which has no purpose but to protect the vested interests of large corporate copyright holders. The 50 years (from the death of the author) afforded by Australian law are ample, promote the growth and reuse of public domain material, supporting ongoing innovation and development both in the arts and business, and are in line with Australia's commitments under the World Intellectual Property Organization treaty.
"Nothing published in the United States of America since 1923 has ever come into the public domain, thanks to lobbying from the music and motion picture industries to repeatedly extend the term of copyright. The public domain has ceased to grow, and unless these continual senseless extensions are stopped, it will never grow again."
There is nothing positive for Australia in these clauses. No additional usage rights are granted to Australians or Australian companies, and these provisions are a blatant sell-out to the interests of large US-based media companies.
Additionally, "harmonisation" of Australian patent law with the United States risks the creation of "software patents" in Australia. These types of patents have been regularly abused in the United States by major software companies who use them to intimidate and suppress competition and innovation. Litigation over the alleged infringement of "software patents" has become a lucrative business model in the United States, and is a path that Australia would be ill-advised to follow.
"The Howard government intends to sell out the Intellectual Property rights of average Australians to billion-dollar music and motion picture companies in the United States, who can use these new enforcement powers to prosecute Australians for trivial infractions of copyright, that would be legal under American law.
Australian copyright law recognises only very limited 'fair dealing' rights, typically for the purposes of scholarly study or review. In contrast, Americans enjoy wide-ranging 'fair use' rights, which Australians do not, such as the right to record TV programs for viewing at a later time, or to copy a legally purchased Compact Disk onto an audio cassette. Unless very specific and limited exemptions apply, Australians who perform these acts are breaking the law.
"If the Howard government couples the draconian enforcement and prosecution provisions of the DMCA with the already unbalanced Australian copyright law, it will place every Australian at the mercy of a lawsuit for breach of copyright", Clapperton continued. "It will turn the Australian Internet industry into a litigation mill, as well-funded US media groups launch waves of prosecutions against Internet users and Internet Service Providers themselves."