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Audio Format Shifting To Be OK'd In New Zealand
Bloodrage writes "The New Zealand government is about to define a small part of the rights assumed by the 'fair use' clause in the Copyright Act 1994. Essentially they are going to protect the consumers' rights to convert media from one format to another for personal use, making it clearly legal to transfer tracks from a commercial CD to a mix-CD, MP3 player, PDA, PC, 8-track, or tuned array of hummingbirds. NZ law already makes it clear that gifting or reselling items includes a transfer all of rights, including copyright, warantee, and licencing agreements, so providing your original is the genuine article you're not a criminal. An article in the The Dominion Post gives an outline of the responses from the recording industry and why the government is considering it. It boils down to; this is 'fair use' and don't argue, and that the government can't see how the alternative could be (affordably) enforced."
With any luck, we'll be rid of Howard (US bootlicker) in November, so don't forget to speak to opposition MPs as well.
that should read 'across the tasman could do the same' :(
"What if an actual criminal steals the genuine article? If my rights disappear because no longer own it, does it mean they get transferred to the criminal?"
No, the NZ crimes act states that ownership of any property stays with the owner until it is legally assigned to some other entity. So even if a CD is stolen, the owner remains the legal licensee.
Region coding may not be illegal in Australia, but neither is regionfree-afying your equipment. I use DVD Region X on my PS2, my mother's DVD player just needed Pi entered in a specific way to go region free. Because of the ease with which this is achieved, many stores sell stuff from other regions. I bought the Region 1 Firefly box set in a city store last weekend.
Not sure about that, I don't think Region Coded DVD players are illegal. We have a region here (4) and most players are coded, I had to do unlock mine. This NZ government also restricted the importation of Non-region 4 DVD's into the country as NZ reps of the major studios where moaning that DVD shops in NZ were selling Region 1 DVD's of movies currently showing at the cinema.. This really irritated me, as there are lots of DVD's that aren't in Region 4, and the studios should get movies here sooner. It is still legal to import/buy from amazon region n dvd's for personal use though. So I guess it is not really much of a problem.
Are you sure about this?
You're not allowed to import the DVD of a film that is still playing in cinemas or yet to come out, but I reckon that's fair enough - especially given that we get unzoned DVD players.
Go to the right place and you can get the brand new Rammstein DVD for cheaper than a CD costs (just one example), if there's a parallel importing restriction then it doesn't seem to be inflating prices too much.
For the Australians, this sums up American politics.
Bush (aka "Warrior King"): Fighting for the peace and justice of the rich's money. Master propagandist, but shooting himself in foot with over-the-top commercials and muzzled federal employees resigning and talking to the press. Has a campaign fund of over 100 mil.
Kerry: Not Bush. Flip-flopped on issues a bit, decorated Vietnam vet, best hope for a not-Bush president. Campaign fund of around 2.4 mil.
Lets see if bush can buy the country again. (The last time being the pointless $300 tax rebate, makes everyone like him for something pretty insignificant)
> A piece of sensible legislation.
.fi is not a pathfinder. Haven't the other Nordic countries and Canada been pretty progressive?
> It's high time other countries followed soot.
Some countries already did. (They got lost in the chimney. Others followed suit. Well, actually, they sort of took the lead in the matter. Not to belittle NZ, though - the legally required disabling of region control in DVD players was great.)
This is a perfect example of scare tactics of the music industry. Making copies of video/audio (for personal use, where "personal" means you and your immediate family) has long been legal in Finland. In fact, this right extends to making a copy or two of borrowed material, be it from a friend or from a library.
As inconceivable as it is to the RIA* noisemakers, the movie and music publishers are in perfect health and seem to be making a tidy profit even in this land of moral decay.
Caveat: to compensate for this, there is a fee on recordable media. This would be sort of OK, but the folks supposedly distributing the fees among copyright holders aren't all that forthcoming with their policies, and this is the same bunch of RIAA equivalents that want fees from kindergarten classes singing copyrighted christmas songs and taxis with the radio playing.
Current legislators don't seem to be quite as savvy when it comes to cultural wealth: software copies are restricted to a single backup, and opening DRMS'ed content is now illegal, if I remember recent developments correctly. No doubt the media companies lobby effectively even here.
By the way, I'm fairly certain
strictly speaking when you buy a CD you are buying a license to the material
False. To avoid redundancy, see this post.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Hi Michael,
I have just read the article at http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2852764a11,00. html. You say you are totally opposed to the move, because you believe it would "open the floodgates" to unrestricted piracy.
As a software developer I spend a lot of time in front of a computer at both home and work. I like to listen to music when I am using computers. Under the current law (which is what you support, given that you are totally opposed to the move), I can only legally play copyrighted music from CDs in CD-ROM drives on my computers (and don't even get me started on copy-controlled CDs). During the course of a workday, this means interrupting my workflow up to 10 times to switch CDs. Of course, if I decide I'm sick of a CD before it is finished it means another switch. Clearly switching CDs quickly gets annoying. It also proves very annoying to transport CDs I want to listen to between work and home each day.
In fact (as I am sure you are aware), Sony itself currently sells Minidisc recorders which currently allow music to be copied illegally under the current law. Given your position, I hope you are overseeing the removal of these useless recorders (as it is illegal for people to use them to copy music) from sale in New Zealand.
However, if the law changes to allow fair personal use, my life suddenly becomes easier because I can make a copy of my music in a digital format which makes it much easier to transport and switch between listening to different music.
Your viewpoint is analagous to saying no-one should be able to drive cars because some people speed and cause accidents in which people die. However, in real life, people are allowed to drive cars. Why? Because cars make our lives easier. The speeding problem is dealt with through driver education, and dealing punishment to those who do speed as a discouragement to them and others. Similarly the music sharing problem is dealt with by consumer education, and dealing punishment to those who do share music as a discouragement to them and others.
Without education and punishment, the current law would be effectively 'powerless' to discourage people from sharing copyrighted music. Under the proposed changes, it still will be illegal to share copyrighted music. Provided there is still continued education and punishment, I can't see any reason why the proposed law change will result in increased music sharing activity.
By opposing the move, you are only denying otherwise law abiding consumers the opportunity to use technology to make their lives easier.
Simon
-1, Unable to perform simple math
10 million CD's = tens of millions (let's say 50 million) dollars ->
1 CD = 5 dollars