Patent Mess May Stifle Australian Software

gtoomey writes "Australian Open Source lawyer Brendan Scott is claiming the USA/Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will damage all Australian software development. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald says that developers have probably built products which 'infringe' on U.S. software patents, while the FTA is forcing Australia to adopt DCMA laws."

Comments

Re:Australia?

[acceber]

It affects Australia because it's a US-Aus FTA. It is presently under hot debate in Parliament House in Canberra at the moment. I hear it on News Radio (630 AM) in Sydney almost every day.

Currently, the opposition (Mark Latham and the Labor Government) are proposing their own amendments to cater for this issue which would undoubtedly affect developers in Australia and cripple the industry and the economy to a big extent. John Howard, the current Prime Minister of Australia (if you didn't know), says that he is ready to "have a look" at any proposals of amendments to this current dilemma because the national interests of Australia are far more important than any short-term political advantage when it comes to the US-Aus FTA.

There is a reason why the US Senate passed the FTA first. The advantages towards one country seem to significantly outweigh the advantages the other country will receive. At this stage anyway.

Help fix this problem

[Marlor]

I posted this information in the earlier (less specific) story about the FTA's impact on Australian software development, but we really need to take action to let the media and politicians know that this is a big issue.

One of the best tactics is to send letters to newspapers. The FTA is a hot topic in the news right now, so there's a good chance that letters relating to it will be accepted. You can send letters to the editor at the following addresses:
The Australian
Sydney Morning Herald
The Age

You can also let your feeling be known to the shadow minister for the Arts, Sport and Information Technology (Senator Kate Lundy). Her contact details are here. Be sure to mention that this issue will affect your vote.

The Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts have so far brushed off any suggestion that Australia's software industry will be harmed by the FTA, and really do not seem to understand the issues. However, you can contact them here, and the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts here. Once again, be sure to mention that this will affect your vote.

You can also find out which electorate you are in, if you don't already know, and send your local federal MP a message about how disappointed you are over the FTA's impact on the IT industry.

We already have DMCA style provisions

[Talez]

Australian copyright law has anti-circumvention provisions and has had since 2001 IIRC.

Australian copyright law is already completely anal. We don't have a concept of fair-use like the US copyright system. We're not legally allowed to tape shows off the TV.

Re:Bandwidth

[ColaMan]

Hmmm... where are you?

Check around the ISP's, sounds like your pricing's stuck a few years behind. Might I suggest whirlpool , if you haven't already seen it? Anywhere that Tel$tra's got a DSLAM, you can also get any other ISP in australia that sells ADSL.

I'm in Mount Isa, and I get 512/128 from Internode at $59/mo. That's with 12GB download (capped at 40kb/s after that), a pile of quota-exempt mirrors (mmmm... gentoo rsync :-), a heap of free radio relays.. etc. If you don't like caps, you can get a "flat-rate" plan that does some prioritisation depending on your current download totals compared to everyone else currently using flatrate. But anyhoo, that's enough Internode fanboyism from me :-)