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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."
From the article:
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.
Really? No kidding? It seems to me like erecting trade barriers has been the only use of the DMCA and related copyright legislation's restriction on copy control mechanisms. DVDs and region coding/CSS, Lexmark and printer cartridges, Sony and modchips. Can someone please give me a valid instance of the DMCA's copy control mechanism clauses being invoked in a case that didn't involve keeping a potential competitor out of a specific market?
Free yourself. Everything else will follow.
If you don't buy your Sony games locally, you undercut Sony's ability to gouge on local game prices locally. And from what I've heard, video game companies seem to gouge on local game prices in Australia quite a bit.
It's all about protecting corps, such as Sony, from the effects of global capitalism; market forces are bad for profits, so technological and legal barriers to their proper operation must be put in place. Modern corporatism demands that only corporations get to benefit from globalization, never consumers.
I think anyone who's been keeping up to date with international agreements could see this coming a mile away. Australia is just the latest in a series of countries that have signed up for a Free Trade Agreement with the United States and received a bonus kick in the nuts to their copyright laws.
As an Australian, however, it's a lot more personal. I read /. I keep up to date on stuff like this. I sent letters to all political parties about this, with little success. My problem is this: I can talk to the politicians, but in an issue such as this, which politician will stand on principles to block the copyright amendments and subject themselves to "blocking Australian jobs" and other, more emotionally-laden epithets?
We know why the copyright amendments are in there; the USA is willing to sacrifice protectionism in a few key markets for a bigger stick on copyright. The USA wins: they get to stop the popular-but-expensive subsidies, while being popular in the electorate for their copyright stance.
The other country, my country, thinks it's getting a good deal, but ends up with an Intellectual property deficit. The politicians don't care - they reap the political benefits now.
Sorry for the rant. I guess it's just sour grapes - one would think that after helping the US with that crazy War on Terror thing, that we'd at least get the courtesy of lube before the big event.
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
Write Sony a letter.
If I am having to write letters to privately held corporations if I want to express displeasure with the laws that are being applied to me, something is very, very, very wrong.
"Sony will be in a weaker negotiating position when they talk terms with foreign distributors/publishers "
So what?
Really, I can't imagine why this is the general public's concern. I certainly can't imagine why its the job of the Australian government to make sure Sony is in the best negotiating position with local distributors.
its bad enough that we spread crap media and movies to countries like australia, now we give them laws...
If your major contention aligns with the thought that trans-national mega corporate capitalism is wonked and needs at the least some tweaking, then I don't wan't to argue that here, perhaps never.
"See, for someone to make a profit, someone else has to make a loss.."
Here I think you are wrong. Here is a simple thought experiment.
You have a green thumb but are terrible with animals. I am great with animals, but my plants always die. Rather than each of us tending our animals and our gardens, if you will do all the gardening and I will tend all the animals, we can both make a profit. Right?
We may both end up being happier while we work as well which can be a major bonus.
all the best,
drew
FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
So, why should Sonly be able to inport/export at will across the world but consumers should not? If they want regoin coding, why should it not also apply to their manufacturing and production for example?
Of COURSE they want to squeeze out the most money, heck, I would say they would be even more happy if no one else would be able to seel products that would compete with them, that way they can make even more money. Even better, make it mandatory for everyone to buy everything from them, instant profit as much as they want.
It is time to stop caring only about companies and start caring for the general consumers and the public as well.