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Tougher Copyright Laws for Australia
smee2 writes "The Age reports Tougher copyright laws linked to the Australia-US free trade agreement (FTA) have been passed by the Australian parliament, AAP reports.
The bill, which passed the Senate last night, will enable people other than copyright owners to force internet service providers to take down material allegedly infringing copyright."
The article:
Tougher copyright laws passed
Canberra
December 8, 2004 - 9:30AM
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Tougher copyright laws linked to the Australia-US free trade agreement (FTA) have been passed by parliament, AAP reports.
The bill, which passed the Senate last night, will enable people other than copyright owners to force internet service providers to take down material allegedly infringing copyright.
The internet industry raised concerns in a brief inquiry held overnight that the changes could bog down the industry with automated copyright claims.
The bill also made minor and technical amendments to the Copyright Act and the FTA implementation laws to improve Australia's implementation of its copyright obligations.
The changes followed last-minute talks between Australia and the US to finalise the FTA which takes effect on January 1.
The FTA for the first time gave performers economic and moral rights in sound recordings.
A number of criminal offences were broadened to target copyright breaches for financial gain or commercial advantage and significant infringements on a commercial scale.
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New provisions were introduced in relation to the unauthorised receipt and use or distribution of encoded broadcasts.
And the term of protection for copyright material was extended by 20 years.
The Australian Greens and Democrats voted against the bill, saying it would impact on freedom of speech and media diversity on the internet.
Sam Varghese adds:
Internet Industry Association chief executive Peter Coroneos said the bill had passed after Trade Minister Mark Vaile had exchanged a letter with his Opposition counterpart Simon Crean, pledging to work with the industry in drafting regulations that would "take the sting out of the bill."
Asked whether the US would not object to such watering down, Coroneos said it was a case of treading another fine line. "We are meeting Mr Vaile tonight in Canberra to work on the regulations which would be used to soften the bill," he said.
He said the bill was likely to go to the executive council by the 16th.
Asked whether the Americans would not object to such "regulations", Coroneos said he had no comment about what the reaction would be on the US side.
He said the IIA had been working with the negotiators for the last 18 months and had reached agreement on suitable copyright provisions, acceptable to the Australian industry, in July.
Coroneos said the changes - introduced because of section 154 of the US Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act 2004 - which had the internet industry up in arms, was shown to him only last Thursday.
"It may look like a last-minute effort but it is not," he said.
Reading the article, it seems like the people in Canberra are like dogs, looking up to their masters and asking if they can do this, or that..
It's truly a sad day for all Australians
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
Even if Kazaa is shut down by these new laws (or some others already on the books or in the queue*) will it really affect P2P traffic?
Personally, I don't even use Kazaa anymore; it's so overrun with half downloaded songs and mislabeled files that it's nearly useless and better alternatives are already in place to grab the standard should/when Kazaa fall(s). In fact, cleaning out the dregs that the Kazaa network has become will only increase the efficiency of the P2P machine.
Sites like Suprnova and Shareconnector verify the content before providing links to the torrent or donkey file, eliminating the possiblity of a mislabeled or otherwise misleading file. Sure, the speed can be slightly slower, but faster alternatives (Bearshare, Ares) are also available for the speed freaks. And unlike Kazaa, these newer apps are willing to share networks, rather than trying to corner the market.
Napster showed us that killing a single app (even one as prevalent as Napster was) hardly interferes with the P2P machine, I don't think any legislation will manage to slow it down.
* denotes bad P2P joke
And the term of protection for copyright material was extended by 20 years. because 50 to 120 years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_co pyright_length
will just not give you enough time!
(personel note: wiki is wrong right? it can not be THAT long!!!)
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot.
They're legally a Vanuatuan (sp? - based in Vanuatu - french South Pacific) company IIRC. Big chunks of their company operate out of Australia though. As you prolly know, they're battling something or other out with someone or other in the Australian courts at the moment.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Joke aside, Australia has a good reason to play nice with the United States. Remember that Australia has vast resources, is much richer than neighboring countries AND has very little in the way of a defense force. Compare it to Indonesia, and guess which would have reason to conquer the other.
This puts a pressure on Australia to either build a greater army (not much chance with 20 million people vs 240 million) or seek powerful allies... Allies which have a political and economical stake.
Not only has this copyright bill gone through, they also just passed an Electronic Surveillance bill that "regulates the use of surveillance devices (data, optical, listening and tracking devices) by law enforcement agencies and.... also significantly widens the circumstances in which they can be used and the types that can be used." where is the government free space??
After the FTA was signed but before the enacting legislation, a bunch of sham "Public Consultations" were held. Lots of small businesses and individuals gave many good reasons why (especially) the IP related parts were very damaging to Australia and gave all the advantages to America.
End result: Nothing changed.
Thank you, Canberra, for selling me out yet again, you short sighted bastards!
Kazaa is a funny thing.
It's registered in Vanauatu. The entire thing is coded by outsourced coding team LEF Interactive.
When users clickthrough the Kazaa EULA they are bound by the laws of New South Wales. Everything about the company is basically mercenary, even the CEO.
to mention some of the existing doozies
l ia.law.html/
- identifying an inteligence agent
- refusing to co-operate (no such thing as a right to silence)
and don't forget The Crimes Act VIA 1914 (as amended)
A sample
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/Crime/Austra
In some parts the Crimes Act VIA relating to Commonwealth data the onus of proof is reversed and possession of data = guilt until therwise established by a court of law
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
Still no fair use clause in Australia. We did end up with the worst of both worlds.
Following our example? In a couple ways, the Australian copyright laws are worse than the US laws. First, with America's DMCA, only the copyright owner (or someone authorized to act on their behalf) can send a takedown notice. In contrast, this Australian law seems to allow third-parties to send complaints (although the article was unclear on whether that meant anyone or just specific third-parties).
Also, Australia's got some bad laws when it comes to format shifting. Over there, if you rip a CD that you own to mp3, you've violated the copyright laws. It doesn't matter if you own the CD, don't share the mp3s, and only listen to the mp3s while the CD is in your possession -- it's still technically illegal.
You're out of luck. Tony's Bliar's too busy trying to get us to welcome our EU overlords.