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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."
..now if the fricking Howard government across the tasman, I would be very grateful.
Legally I know why it is, but realistically, what's the problem?
I have a large CD collection, and like to keep digital versions of some CDs I listen to frequently on my hard drive (never shared), or burn CDs to carry around with me so I don't have to worry about theft/damage/loss to the original. Why could that even be a problem? Sure, people can pirate, but people are going to find a way to pirate regardless.
Maybe I'm missing the logic of recording execs, but how is pissing consumers off by limiting their rights going to encourage them to buy more CDs?
With any luck, we'll be rid of Howard (US bootlicker) in November, so don't forget to speak to opposition MPs as well.
a government finally showing some sense in the matter. i recently purchased several cd's from a favorite band of mine, ripped them, and the cd's now are nestled safe in my cd case. since i don't have a cd player at all (besides in my pc) the last thing i want to see is a cd that is not rippable. go NZ! :P
First legalized prostitution, and now this. ;-)
I'm all for fair use - I bought it, I can transfer media, backup and so on.
But insistence that you should be able to freely distribute material is just ammunition for the RIAA, ARIA and other industry lobbiest bastards' weapons against fair use.
Howard is a fucking idiot. Vote latham!
Before all you geeks get any ideas, NZ is a right crap place. The Govt is bloody awfull, the weather is terrible, and despite what you think you know, LOTR was actually made on the moon.
We don't want any more to migrate here, the place is OK as it is.
There is a lesson to be learned here. There's no economic loss to record companies when people copy their own CDs to MP3s or some other digital format. However, it will cost the government millions to enforce a law that prevents that.
Therefore, the sensible thing to do is, let the people copy their own music. As long as they don't pass it on illegitimately (which, actually happens even if you ban copying once own CDs), this should be a solution that makes both the companies, the people, and the the industry happy.
It's high time other countries followed soot.
Three cheers to the Kiwis!!!
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Nothing to see here
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
... or tuned array of hummingbirds.
You mean, a tuned array of Kiwis?
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
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.
Shit, man! Main use for blank CDs is not music-and-video-piracy for many of us. I do backups, store my five-megapixel pictures and burn linux distros to give away to my friends! And I'm just avoid talking about hard disks...
I feel sick! Stop this madness!
Sony NZ managing director Michael Glading said he was totally opposed to the move, which he believed would "open the floodgates" to unrestricted piracy.
This would be the same Sony NZ who have been selling MP3 players in New Zealand for many years now. How on earth did they expect their clients to find anything to play on these devices without breaking the law? I'd like to hear them give an answer to that.
-- Free software on every PC on every desk
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.
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?
What if the original article is destroyed? Does it matter how it happened?
New Zealand and Australia are like the US Guinea pigs for new technology. Before the US makes use of it themselves, giving it a test-run in a developed, friendly, and reasonably well-off country like Australia and NZ makes for a good test case.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
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)
Oh my God, I never realised all the harm I was causing by copying tracks from my CDs onto my harddrive. Well, now that I realise, I'll never do it again.
In what other ways have I been undermining the recording industry? I wonder if it's ok to copy CD tracks onto physical sound waves?
One thing's for sure, I'm never going to sing along to my favourite songs again. I'm such a good singer, I'm bound to put the recording industry out of business.
--
James G.
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.
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.)
--
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, where does the road paved with evil intentions lead to?
Even if your original was copied from a mate, you'd still not be a criminal unless you were profiteering off the copying. Copyright infringement is a civil offense, not criminal in all but a handful of cases. As soon as people realise that copying music isn't a crime but an offense, they'll see that this whole thing has been pulled out of RIAA's ass and promptly blown out of all proportion to help their flagging bank balance.
"Where is it illegal? UK? They don't want to be a part of Europe anyway"
Then there's no argument against having it in a unified EU copyright!
Don't know about anyone else, but I find it a metric shit-load easier to bring my computer to university -complete with CDs ripped to .mp3 & .ogg on my hard drive- than 200+ CDs.
The execs are just little chicken littles, crying that the sky is falling in, just like they did when taping music off the radio was about to kill the record industry...remember?
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?
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.
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.
Sony NZ sells Minidisc recorders with software to rip CDs. Also, the NZ Sony Style shop (corner of Lambton Quay and Willis Street for any interested Kiwis) last week (it may still be there this week, have not looked) had a *huge* window display exhibiting their new hard drive jukebox product. This included photos of all the stacks of CDs you could do away with by copying them to said jukebox.
Furthermore, given that the NZ recording industry association clearly opposes this, and considers it illegal and "theft" at present, will they explain why they don't: (1) expel Sony NZ (which is a member); and (2) seek criminal prosecution of Sony executives. After all, Sony is selling the tools that permit the "theft" from their members, and blatantly advertising this capability as the main reason to purchase
It is a bit rich for Sony to sell products and then lobby for it to be illegal for the hapless consumer to use the products Sony has sold them.
Now the obligatory:
1. Sell overpriced product to consumers
2. Profit
3. Lobby to keep using what you have just sold illegal
4. Prosecute your customers for buying from you
5. More profit
A business strategy to make the RIANZ and RIAA proud.
Making it for all media would mean that time-shifting TV programs would be ok, copying a DVD to as "media center" and watching it would be ok, copying a game to the hard disk and playing it would be ok etc. i.e., as long as only one copy is in use at once, you can have multiple physical copies.
For the producers of the media.
Look at the windfall that occured when CD came in, large amounts of profit made from people buying the same material again on the new format. Now that it is in digital format, how is the industry going to repeat that windfall now that everyone has bought pretty much every CD they are ever likely to need and the current music production is ghastly. I for one know that the 2.7K tracks I have on my iPod is quite frankly enough. If people are able to copy this material for their own use then you can have backups.
Strictly speaking when you buy a CD you are buying a license to the material, not he delivery media. By preventing people from being able to copy the material they have a license to onto a fresh media platform the record companies are trying to preserve the cash flow generated by selling people multiple licenses to the same thing which is frankly, money for old rope!
Incidentally, a similar thing has happened with TV, certainly in the UK anyway. Here if you get Sky (Murdoch's digital sat system) you get a single box and a single card. If you want to record one channel and watch another you need two boxes and two subscriptions, paying twice for the same thing. This also strikes me as quite unfair.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
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)
I suppose overclocking them is out of the question.
You mean tentacles, right?
---- Take the Space Quiz!
Jonathan Ah Kit - Lower Hutt, New Zealand - jonathan@metalab.unc.edu
Fair use of a sheep, hmmm...
Can I let my friend borrow my sheep? Yes.
Can I make a copy of my sheep for my friend? Yes, but not legally.
Reminds me of the joke:
Aussie: "Do you shear you sheep over in NZ?"
Kiwi: "No, get your own damn sheep!"
Disclaimer: Yes, I am a NZer.
"For the purposes of this Act, the author of a work is the person who creates it." Nobody can create information. You can only discover it.
-I am an elective eunuch.
strictly speaking when you buy a CD you are buying a license to the material
False. To avoid redundancy, see this post.
-
- - 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
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.
There is no such right. If there were, I could do any old thing that I cared to define as "work" and demand that somebody pay me to do it.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
The story says "allow one copy" of a recording you already own.
We already have this right in Canada. I think most Americans take it as a God given right.
Can someone compare the NZ recording industry gross proceeds vs Canada/USA (maybe normalize for population)?
Can someone compare the NZ-RIA "claims" of copyright violations per year vs the R/C-RIA "claims" of copyright violations per year (and normalize for population)?
Their claims are just idiotic. Reminds me of the kind of utter illogic and delusion you get from listening to Iraqi Tribesmen and Mullah's (no offense, but really!) If only we could get the XX-RIA orgs and Labels to listen to themselves:
"OMG OMG OMG OMG if people can listen to their CDs through non CD-players, THE FUCKING SKY WILL FALL AND ALL OUR BASE WILL BELONG TO THEM"
Hee hee, yeah, that's right, keep screwing around with "the laws" and focusing on "p2p" as the great evil enemy instead of focusing on delivering PRODUCTS that people CARE ABOUT or WANT (other than teeny boppers I mean).
According to our relentless pace of technological progress, in 10-15 years I'll be able to walk over to my friends place with something in the palm of my hand, and give him a copy of every single audio recording ever made - and it'll cost us next to NOTHING.
Right now if someone were to walk over to their neighbours place, you'd have to carry the device in a plastic bag and it could only contain 50,000 songs and would take a few days and $200 of receiving hardware to copy.
Notice something? I didn't use the Internet or p2p, not even ONCE! So when will "the hammer drop"? When all the *average* schmucks like my Mom and non-techie friends figure out that they can do this, and actually start asking their friends "can I come over with my portable storage device"?
"You have no chance, make your time"
I have to say that the ones I saw in Auckland were quite beautiful and had very soft wool.
--
E_NOSIG
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.