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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."
New Zealand has always been surprisingly progressive when it come to technology (surprising because of the decisions of some other *cough* Australian *cough* governments, not because of anything else). DVD players with region codes are illegal in New Zealand - they see it as anti-competitive and trade restrictive.
That's why I buy my stuff from NZ - the $AU coupled with the open trade agreement - no import tax - yay!
This is NOT the best sig in the world, but this IS a tribute to the best sig in the world.
Come on, if we can be trusted to photocopy from books on an honour system with regards to how much we can copy for fair use, we can damn well be trusted to give ourselves one copy of an audio CD. And why stop at CDs?
Of course there's going to be the fringe element, come on. Even with students (not like me) desperate enough to photocopy a whole sociology or -- heaven forbid -- a 600-page politics textbook on the New Zealand Parliament!
Jonathan Ah Kit - Lower Hutt, New Zealand - jonathan@metalab.unc.edu
How about insightful? I'm not a big fan of our Police roading enforcement right now, but that aside, NZ is actually making laws that reflect the reality of the people. Prostitution ain't flash, but it's real, and legalising it means the girls get the same workers rights as anyone else. CD ripping is common place, and is considered "fair use" in the eyes of all outside the music sales industry boardrooms. These laws reflect the people's view, not some corporation's greed. I guess that's why it's news here on US based Slashdot.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
FWIW here in NZ there is no 'fair use' clause allowing people to make copies for their own use. So in effect anyone who does rip any tracks from any CDs they happen to own is breaking the law. The record company execs are worried that by allowing some form of copying the floodgates will be opened.
In the article, Micheal Glading, the MD of Sony NZ mentions that he is opposed to the move.
Paradoxically, Sony NZ sell MiniDisc players here in NZ and also sell the blank MiniDiscs. No doubt, if you were to visit one of their retail outlets and enquire as to what you could use them for, you would probably be told by their reps that you can use them to copy CDs (I might even give it a go tomorrow).
The law here in NZ is an ass, because it is perfectly legal to buy devices for playback of ripped cds and also legal to buy the software for ripping cds.
I once bought a computer game, which had an offer in the manual which went along the lines of:
If your CD is lost/damaged then you can obtain a replacement for the cost of postage/packaging + obviously a small fee to cover the cost of producing the CD.
Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
An interest comment elsewhere that NZ forbits DVD region coding, and so they bloody should. Talk about doing nothing against piracy, and everything against fair use!
For a while, these were common, at least in the city I live in. Many of the larger dairies had them. They had the appropriate part of the copyright act printed on them, along with a note that they are not to be used for copyright violation, however they had bigger writing saying things like 'back up your music and data'. They seemed to vanish part way through last year, likely due to a recording industry crack down (or because, in the uni city I'm in, you only need walk 10 meters before you meet someone with a CD-burner)
The reasonable approach would be to pay a media-replacement fee, say $2 or so.
The really tricky problem is about the obsolescence of media. Let's say I bought "Dark Side of the Moon" on CD a few years ago. Now it's been re-released as an SACD with a stunning 5.1 surround mix etc etc. Have i bought the rights to "Dark Side of the Moon" as an entity, or just as a particular instance?
For the Americans, this sums up Australian politics.
Howard (aka "Little John"): Spends his time dry humping Bush's leg. Formed a "once in a lifetime" free trade agreement with the U.S. That gave us absolutely nothing, and put a shitload of aussies out of work. Is extremely vague when asked anything.
Latham: Opposition Leader. Cries like a little girl in parliment when things don't go his way. Breaks taxi driver's arms in his spare time.
Crean(aka "The invisible man"). Did absolutely nothing to try and win our votes. Superseded by Latham. Last seen ignoring people.
Beazly(aka "Big Kim"). Nobody liked him. Lost the last federal Election. Now he's better than any candidate currently running.
Pauline "Please Explain" Hanson: Fraudulently formed a political party and stole half a million dollars of tax payers money, and god knows how much in donations. Got caught. Went to Jail. Still has supporters who claim she was a political prisoner. Her only policy, EVER, was to get rid of speed cameras. Spent an hour on sixty minutes telling us that. Also tried to bring in a new tax system, the design of which she stole from someone else (who, incidently, said it wouldn't work in the real world). Last seen complaining about something.
Here in Spain we have the SGAE, a similar RIAA-thing. This agency is serving Spanish artists (serving? hahaha! here in spain artists suck so hard that SGAE charges even them!!! hahaha!). Well, the point I want to make about Spanish state of things is that 99.99% of the Spanish music artists and therefore its works are plain crap. As most (some) people simply skips crap on the stores these artist must have a way to earn money. So they sign up for the big cow, who fucks us all, drinks its own milk, and shits some peanuts for them.
There is another way of looking at the situation but noone wants to get shot. Many people(including me) believe there is no given right to own intellect, a thought, or a 'bit'. What makes people who do believe 'intellectual property' any more right then those who don't? The difference is one type is willing to imprison the other over an act that is not violent in any way. Intellectual property is a rationalization to control people by cohersion. cow
Where is it illegal? UK? They don't want to be a part of Europe anyway.
In Finland you can legally make copies for your own use in any format even if you don't own the original. And crack any copy protection in the process if you need to. (EUCD implementation is still in the works here, like in the most of the EU.)
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If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, where does the road paved with evil intentions lead to?
Your music retailer is now no longer a spacious shop with hundreds of boxes on shelves, but a small boutique establishment with a licence to copy, a fast Internet connection, a computer, and a bank of CD writers. All legal and above board. What's your problem? Providing a useful service perhaps?
They did miss a point. They did point out that more blank CD's are sold than audio recordings. In my case, that is easy to explain. I have a digital camera. Duh! My wife and I have cars. I don't carry a case of CD's with me when we change vehicles. I download and burn LEGAL public domain old radio programs (Fibber McGee and Molly, Amos and Andy, Great Gildersleeve, Lone Ranger, Abbott and Costello, and others). I put mixes of MP3's on CD's for the living room DVD player (juke box in a single tray) and portable CD/MP3 player. Somehow the record company thinks all these uses is piracy as I didn't bother to buy multiple copies or carry a huge CD binder everywhere I go. The marketing folks have missed the boat on this one by jumping to conclusions that may not be entirely correct by assuming a blank CD sale equals an unsold audio recording sale. That assumption is simply not true. I'm in my 40's now. I have a library of CD's. I also copy all the computer games to work copies as cheap insurance for the kids. All too often they are used as carpet protectors under the wheels of the chair. I'm still finishing ripping my LP's and cassettes. (that's probably labled as piracy also) I definately bought more blank CD's than audio CD's last year by a factor of about 50:1. I don't have any P-P app installed. I'm on dial-up at home. CD's that don't back up properly get returned as defective. My burnt CD's get marked Work Copy with a listing of the location of the original.
"Work Copy"
"Original on file at..."
I resent the implication I'm a pirate because I bought more blanks than I bought pre-recorded.
The truth shall set you free!
Because if not I envision the situation becoming "you're legally entitled to copy it but good luck trying!".
Hmmm, i thought it was quite normal to have the right to make a copy for personal use. Oh well, maybe it's just that i'm not a US citizen..
look here and mind this quote: (...) CD-Rs were not seen as a media intended for copying music.
Show a man some news, distract him for an hour. Show a man some mod points, distract him for the rest of his life.
they've yet to recognise gun ownership as a fundamental human right
NZ has an unwritten constitution so it is pretty hard to say which rights are recognised as fundamental. NZ'ers also have a lot of guns. Some estimates run up to about 1,000,000 guns for about 4,000,000 people (i.e. about one gun per household).
For example, when I bought my DVD player, one of the selling points the guy in the store made was it was deregioned (chipped locally), and could play any and all DVDs. And it does : )
One of the most popular DVD retailers here (Real Groovy), sells Zone 1 DVDs right next to the Zone 4 DVDs (though they are more expensive due to importing).
In fact, one chain of video rental outlets was actually threatened by a local distrobutor for selling Zone 1 DVDs in store (not renting, that would be illegal), before the local boys had released the zone 4 distro. It's all linked to our parrallel inporting laws, which allow for such things.
Odd that a former British colony has more freedom than the land of the free : )
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
Jonathan Ah Kit - Lower Hutt, New Zealand - jonathan@metalab.unc.edu
I agree... so how about the reverse, I go out and buy the SACD version. Do I now have the right to walk into a record shop (or to the publisher's HQ) and say "here's my $2, I want a copy of this album on CD"..
Again, probably not. But I definitely should have the right to make a gritty 64kbps mp3 encoding to listen to on my cochlear implanted mp3 player! :)
These are all rhetorical questions, but I think it's interesting to explore the extremities of these issues, that's where the interesting stuff is...
In the real world, this is why we have the courts, to interpret the written law according to contemporary societal values. It's also why it's vital that lobby groups like RIAA not be allowed to extinguish these principles of fair use.
Disclaimer, I don't know squat about NZ law, but it's almost inconceivable that NZ law is different than just about every other country in the world on this...
So even if a CD is stolen, the owner remains the legal licensee.
No, you mean the owner remains the legal owner.
You are not a licensee unless they have licenced you copy rights to manufacture more copies or for public performance or the like. Only rights get licenced, particular copies are always owned. There is no such thing as a licence to "use". You buy a book and you have every right to read it without any licence whatsoever. You buy a CD and you have every right to listen to it without any licence whatsoever.
The copyright lobby is trying to totally redefine copyright to grant them rights over ordinary "use". They are doing a frightningly good job of convincing the public that copyright already says various things that they want it to say. When the public and the legislators believe that copyright already says what the industry wants it so say then it becomes easy for the industry to get laws passed making those changes because no one realizes it's a change. Hell, even when legislators do realize it's a change they think they are "fixing" a problem with the law because the law didn't say what they thought it was supposed to say. It's a very insidious tactic, and the media / publishing companies are the masters of manipulating perceptions.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
From the article:
So under the proposed changes, it would still be illegal for me to have more than one digital copy of a CD I own i.e. one on a work computer and one on a home computer (correct me if I am wrong - IANAL)
For Australians and Americans, this sums up New Zealand politics:
Helen Clark (the Prime Minister): scheming realpolitik plotter. Pokes her tongue out in parliament & behaves like a nyah-nyah-nyah child there, is always either scowling & smurking, or smiling narcistically whenever she's the centre of attention. Gives herself excessive self-praise as a "competent" prime minister. Has signed other people's paintings & passed them off has her own. Seems to intensely hate anybody not part of the 'university left' / 'liberal' clique, such as George Bush and the Greens (whom she calls Anarcho-Goths or something). Called a TV3 reporter a "little creep" after he interviewed her about covering up about a G.M. corn release. Dresses and speaks like a lesbian (though she is married, and denies she is).
Don Brash: Opposition Leader, former head of the Reserve Bank: has no understanding what others are thinking. Neo-liberalist extrordinaire. Has famously stated that nobody should own their own house. Lost to the Social Credit Party in a National Party safe electorate seat... twice. Is married to a Singaporian women he had an affair with while still married. Main campaign strategy seems to be fussing about special-rights given to Maoris (they vote for Labour, so the government tries hard to aplease them, along with immigrants).
Winston Peters: leader of the New Zealand First party: arrogant ruthless task-oriented political battler. Obsessively despises corruption and ineptness. Highly intelligent. Practically is the whole party's functional existance. Widely considered to have an alcohol problem.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: leader of the Green Party. Very nice, kind smiley person. Has the charisma of a half-watt light bulb. Lives on her own self-sufficient organic farm. Has some crazy person stalker her.
Maybe you'll find something more positive about NZ here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298228/
So, would this mean that in New Zealand, I can make a Linux application that converts Windows Media Player format to another format (Ogg Vorbis) without paying any license fees to Microsoft (and it's all legal).That is what this implies to me.
From the article:
"Sony NZ managing director Michael Glading said he was totally opposed to the move, which he believed would "open the floodgates" to unrestricted piracy.
"At the end of the day, you're sending a message that it's okay to copy, and that is going to kill our business. It's taking away people's rights to earn a living, and that's horrendous."
Someone should clue this guy in over tha fact that it was Sony that introduced the SCMS (Serial (referred to as Sony) Copy Management System as part of the audio CD standard. Sony has explicitly allowed consumers to make a first generation digital copy of a CD.
See: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jacg/dcc-faq/scms.html
20 years ago it was desirable to respect the consumers' right of fair use, and today it's killing the business. Yeah, right.