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Australia-U.S. Trade Agreement Takes First Strike
inflex writes "With the recent AU-US Federal trade ageement coming into force, the first signs of what is to come have started appearing with Sony unleashing a legal bid to clamp down on previously legal mods chips in Australia."
Here's the text:
Sony in push to outflank PS2 mods
Andrew Colley
MARCH 15, 2005
SONY Computer Entertainment Australia is planning a new legal bid to outlaw PlayStation modification chips following recent changes to federal copyright laws.
The devices override copy control mechanisms Sony builds into its consoles to block the use of pirated games and DVDs encoded for players built to operate in other regions.
Launching the Gran Turismo 4 game in Sydney last week, SCEA managing director Michael Ephraim said the company had instructed its lawyers to prepare a new court challenge to the legality of the devices.
The case would be based on amendments to the Copyright Act flowing from the US Free Trade Agreement in January, he said.
Sony's lawyers were preparing the case in anticipation of a High Court appeal overturning a decision in its favour, based on previous laws, handed down by the full bench of the Federal Court in July 2003.
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Mr Ephraim said "the company would take more steps to crack down on street-level piracy in the second half of the year.
"We will wait for the outcome of the Stevens case.
However, Mr Ephraim said, "the world has changed a lot".
"So we will continue our fight against chipping on the PS2."
SCEA has engaged in a long series of legal manoeuvres to outlaw the chips since 2002 when it took legal action against backyard mod chip supplier, Eddy Stevens, in the Federal Court.
Sony asked the court to interpret parts of the Copyright Act outlawing the devices that circumvent copy protection mechanisms to include mod chips that Mr Stevens was selling.
However, Justice Ronald Sackville ruled in favour of Mr Stevens after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intervened in the case.
The competition watchdog argued that Sony was using the copy control mechanism to erect artificial trade barriers between Australian consumers and overseas games and DVD markets.
Sony eventually won its case on appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court in July 2003. However, on February 8 Mr Stevens appealed to the High Court to overturn the decision.
Mr Stevens's legal representative, Gadens Lawyers, said the High Court had not set a date to give its decision.
The ACCC should have forced Sony to make a PS2 that had no copy control in it. They should also force the same on Xbox and DVD playing devices. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, our consumer watchdog agency intervened in the PS2 mod chipping case stating that mod chipping must be legal as without it Australians can't by games from overseas to play on our PS2. As most games are released overseas before they are released here and games are often priced hirer here than they are to import, the ACCC ruled this was an artificial trade barrier.
They should have taken a harder stance, now we're gunna get fucked over by the stupid trade agreement.
How we know is more important than what we know.
If there's any Australians who still think Free Trade with the US is a good thing, just ask their largest trading partner how free trade has helped with softwood lumber, hogs, wheat, or anything else for that matter.
For those unfamiliar with the process:
- Blame Canada
- Impose tariff
- Ignore NAFTA rulings that don't support the tariff
- ???
- Profit
NAFTA was supposed to reduce trade barriers, but has only made them much worse. Push for binding arbitration in your FTA if you can't get out of it now. They will not listen to trade commissions, they make more money collecting the tariffs than they lose paying penalties.Sony is worried about piracy, not you importing games.
Ah, so that's why every game console from Nintendo/Sega/Sony since the NES has been designed to not allow import games to run? Because they aren't worried about it?
Sony has gone after mod-chip makers that designed their products to only play imports, and not CDR backups, as well.
It's the same exact reason DVDs have region coding. It's profitable because it creates artificial regions. Free trade is only for businesses, not cust... erm, consumers.
We in w.europe love canada, hate usa (not its people).. most of us anyway. Besides, did you have a say in all these trade agreements? No.. thus, you are entitled to bitch about it.
An american from Seattle once said, regarding the promise of capitalism, freedom and democracy, that the idea comes down to "making the world safe for profit, using clever rules of freedom and democracy". See, for someone to make a profit, someone else has to make a loss.. they have to put in more energy than they take out, where the diff, is profit for the ubermann. If not people, then it's natural resources being exploited.
4% (USA) consumes 40% of the world's resources, 10% close to 90%. And the promise is, if there's free trade, we'll all be rich? This is just one big pyramid scheme with the corporations being on top, and controlling and culture, exploitig emotional weaknesses (seduction, advertisements aimed to make one unhappy with what they have, and promises them happiness again if they buy this or that). Not religion has become the opium of the people, but democracy.. for the quality of democracy is dependent on the concioussness of the people, which is pretty much controlled by large corporations (media, culture). It leaves nothing in its way, nothing, no culture, no belief, or community is sacred, for individualism is created by capitalism, and is also a prerequisite. Because the only rule holy to capitalism, is capitalism, trade and free market itself. Democracy, while a great concept, is to give a false sense of control about one's own life, but serves merely as justification for capitalism.. because it shuts you up. Because whatever happens (like the trade agreement between US and Canada, like Netherlands and Spain and many more supporting Iraqi war, while far out the majority of the people didn't.. all those things crucial are not discussed with the public, but is done between corporations and the government they pretty much control, lobbies, economic pressures.. since government depends on corporations for finance)...
In the mean time, we are lead to believe we are free and have control over our lives.
The free trade agreement changed into NAFTA when Mexico entered the picture.
Before free trade agreement, pretty much everything sold between Canada and the US had tariffs and there was no standard way to mediate the conflicts.
It's always easy to say that things are worst then they would be if something had been different but since there's no way to compare it's hard to actually demonstrate it.
Personnally, I think that the fewer barriers there are to trade, the better. The FTA and NAFTA both serve that purpose. I don't see how not having these agreements would stop the US from imposing tariffs. There were plenty of those before the agreement.
Yea we did vote on it, what happened to the convservatives?
majority government to what 2 seats?
Let me guess, you are a wannabe american, your parents are american, or you make money from americans. 100 bucks that it is one of those three, because it always is with you people.
oh wait i know the arguement let me:
"We need them we export 80% of our goods to them."
Ok so why not expand trade with other people?
why not trade with the europeans, the chinese, the indians or heck find a couple of emerging markets and use them to trade with.
It's a trademark problem not a copyright isuse. Some company in the US trademarked "UGG" and told to stop using it, but we have been using the term for a long time it would be the same as Aus trademarking "Apple Pie" and telling the US to stop using it.
Just as a point of claification. Most of the NAFTA rulings that I know of (soft wood lumber in particular) are actually decided in Canada's favour. The U.S. just ignores the rulings until the next round of inquiries are made.
Highest average standard of living indeed.. if you spend all your money in 1 week, you will experience great standard of living too.. why don't you?
Just because our lack of conciousness and individualism makes us think no further than 1 or 2 generations (our own, plus perhaps our kids if we're good parents), doesn't mean this standard of living is sustainable. That's the whole point.
For example, many economies run on oil.. especially america's. Can you imagine 80 million barrels of oil being pumped out of the ground EVERY SINGLE DAY??? Can you imagine how much that is? Oil having been formed over thousands or millions of years, being pumped out at such pace. Have you got any clue how dependent our economies are on that oil? It's not just about fuel. That's the least big of concern. We can drive electric. Look around you in your house. The very computer you're using.. I bet more than half of your stuff in your house involves oil products.
If we run out in 20 years, and burn more and more, while climate change is a fact.. the next ice age might just be around the corner..
Human arrogance? I'm the one believing man needs to be much more humble.. we need nature, nature doesn't need us. We can not destroy nature without destroying ourselves. If we comply with the laws of nature, we can thrive, if we violate it, we will will eventually pay the price. Well, our kids will.. and we have become better than ever about not giving a rip about anything that we, in our limited conciousness, see related to ourselves and our own lives. Feeling responsibility towards future generations and envionment is only possible when we become conciouss of it and our own meaning and purpose in life.
go to portland, where we have over 30 microbreweries. We also look down on the beer made from the big commercial "breweries."
If you can see through it, it ain't beer.
Mod parent up. Canada has almost ALWAYS won in rulings -- since the U.S. is easily shown to be using anti-NAFTA, protectionist tactics in the areas of softwood lumber for example.
But the U.S., in regular form, ignores any international laws that don't benefit directly its own long-term interests. I wish our leaders would push for the NAFTA agreement to be invalidated, due to non-compliance by the U.S. It's a contract, isn't it? Doesn't it become null and void if the U.S. keeps flagrantly violating it?
ERROR 144 - REBOOT ?
we've come a long way since we could be convinced to pay a premium for piss like fosters.
The funny thing is no-one here (in Australia) drinks Fosters....and that's the only beer that the world think Aussies drink.
I guess alot can be said for marketing or perception.