Pay Attention To .Au/.Us IP Trade Law

Rusty Russell writes "The recent US-Australia "Free" Trade Agreement Chapter 17 (IP) locks Australia into our existing DMCA-style laws and extends them further: banning "access control" circumvention, extending copyright, guaranteeing penalties greater than actual damages for deliberate copyright infringement, committing us to recognising patents "whether a product or process, in all fields of technology", etc. Linux Australia has produced a draft position paper (rough HTML here), has a how to help page, and started a petition. Please help! " Rusty's a great guy - he's got some good links on his own page, but please take the time to do what you can - if you are a Australian, take the time to *physically* write your MP. Floods of post are what will create action.

Comments

Take our laws... we don't want 'em.

[LostCluster]

Wait a second, the ??AA organziations are letting Austrailia copy our copyright laws? Make them write their own... :)

Re:Take our laws... we don't want 'em.

[Guppy06]

Yeah, then we can sue them for our prior art!

Hey, we could be part of outsourcing!

[JNighthawk]

Hey Aussies. Let's move to India. There we could be paid decent wages for tech jobs, not be afraid of losing our jobs and even you hippies can be vegetarians without being ostracizes!

No can do!

[rdsmith4]

take the time to *physically* write your MP

Too assertive for the slashdot crowd! We'd much rather comment about it in the comfort of our big cushy computer chairs.

USA

[Neo-Rio-101]

G'Day mate, how ya goin'!
I'm from the USA. The United States of Australia, that is!

And she said,

[Himring]

Do you code from a land down under? Where the DMCA grow's and makes plunder?

/duck
/dodge
/hide

Re:And she said,

[LostCluster]

/duck /dodge /hide

You better run. You better take cover.

Re:Alternative

[LostCluster]

What, you didn't hear about the new slogan? "Slashdot. Political action for nerds. Stuff that makes a difference."

I just wanna know if Taco's going to endorce Bush or Kerry this year...

Let me be the first American to say:

[Atario]

We're truly sorry.

Re:It's technology, stupid

[titzandkunt]

"...legislating away a technical problem is like Congress passing a law which would prohibit a motor vehicle from travelling the speed of light. which makes no sense...."

It's not down to congress, it's down to the states, and they've all got legislation in place to limit the unladen & laden weight of vehicles.

All vehicles travelling at c or near c (>0.01c) will be far too heavy to be allowed on the public roads.

T&K.

Re:The black helicopters in Australia…

[next1]

they quite possibly do - we buy them from you.

Re:It's technology, stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

All vehicles travelling at c or near c (>0.01c) will be far too heavy to be allowed on the public roads.

It's generally not a problem traveling on the american highway system at or near c as the vehicel in question will only be in the continental US for about .8ms-1.6ms, after which it's some one else's problem.

Re:What do you expect from a bunch of ex-cons

[Bush Pig]

The only reason the British got interested in using Australia as a penal colony is because, after 1776, they couldn't send their convicts to the American colonies any more ...

The late Douglas Adams once wrote that there was a bridge near where he lived that still had a sign on it threatening anyone who defaced or damaged it with transportation to New South Wales. He didn't understand why there was any bridge left. Despite the damage done by our current government, Australia is still a paradise on earth.