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Fair Use Review in Australia
Jaka writes "The Australian Attorney-General's Department is conducting a review on exceptions to copyright law. Currently Australia allows 4 specific 'fair dealing' exceptions (research or study; criticism or review; reporting of news; and professional advice given by a legal practitioner, patent attorney, or trade marks attorney - it's technically illegal here to convert songs from CD to MP3, or to record a TV show unless it's a live broadcast). They have published a request for public submissions (.pdf or .doc) on whether to expand this list, or adopt an open-ended 'fair use' policy similar to that used in the US and allow the courts to decide if any particular use of copyrighted material should be excepted from copyright law. As we're getting our own version of the DMCA thanks to the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, if something isn't done to broaden copyright exceptions we'll end up with even more draconian copyright restrictions than the US."
A while ago now there was talk of a forcing ISP's into a 'net filtering scheme.
I got vocal with my local members of parliment, then members outside of my area but within my state, then federal.
On my own, I don't know what difference it made, but logic came out and it got smacked down. Let's imagine there were a few thousand other people like me bothering them at every level, explaining as gently as possibly why it was an insane idea.
Make yourself heard as often and as loudly as possible. You will eventually wear the bastards down.
To quote a comedian I once heard (whose name escapes me, but I know he was from the US of A)
.. that leaves a lot to be debated.
"I'd rather live in a country founded by criminals, than one founded by puritans."
Getting a bit off topic
I always laugh at what you can't do in the USA because of wierd laws designed to protect you from yourself, compared to what we can do here in Oz.
I remember back in about '76 or '77 when we had full frontal female nudity on prime time free to air network TV. Yet in the US you made so much hoopla out of Janet Jackson's tit that it seemed like you thought it was the end of the world.
And before you write me off as some whinging foreigner, I spend a lot of time in the US and am getting married there in August. I know that individually you can be nice people, but collectively
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
The law cannot be black and white--this is why we have courts. Imagine if lawmakers had taken your wisdom in creating copyright laws back in 1970--made it black and white. They would have made a set of laws that make no sense after the technological change that has occurred in the last 35 years. The law needs to be flexible so it can remain pertinent and applicable in a changing world. The law should paint broad principles and be clear enough so the principle behind the law--the idea--is well communicated, but flexible enough that it can cope with changing times. Of course this is a real challenge--maybe THE challenge for lawmakers. It was the same challenge faced by the original writers of the US constitution in the 18th century which is why the constitution is quite vague about specifics (thank goodness they didn't make everything black and white to reflect 18th century norms) and allows for amendments.
The US military solves the IP problem in a practical way: If they don't want you to share something they don't share it with you. It's that simple. Military minds are very practical when it comes to solving the real problem as opposed to running around in endless circles debating the legal definition of intellectual property.
If the media industry feels their profit margin isn't high enough they're free to jack up the price of each copy sold. They're even free to come up with customized hardware players that work on an encrypted data format (HA! See how far THAT business model takes them!). This business about pretending they still own something after they've legally sold it is ridiculous. This business about making federal felons out of legitimate customers after the point of sale is equally ridiculous.
Face reality. They legally sold it and the owner of the new copy is legally sharing it. This artificial creation of licensing has got to stop. There are two types of transactions in reality: full sale and rental. If I rent something then I fully expect to give it back. If I buy something, however, then the seller knows at the point of sale that I own it once they've accepted money for it.
I have over 400 legally purchased CDs and fewer than 30 mp3s which I don't legally own the original CD for. I don't share my material on the public network and I don't use common p2p sharing software (Kazaa, napster, whathaveyou) but I am sick and tired of the arguments, dischord, and strife being caused by people who can't cope with the concept of "It's bought and sold... Let go!"
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
It is not my responsibility, as a taxpayer, to support a business which sticks its head in the sand about the viability of its product and the availability of technologies which affect its product. Did the makers of leather armor try to take the makers of the longbow to court? No. They made better plate armor. Did the makers of the ancient wooden galleons try to take the makers of steamships to court? Maybe, if they were caught up in ridiculous patent disputes but, in the end, it is their responsibility to make a better product.
Stick with reality.
More whimsical conjecture. The reality is they sold to me an object. I own that object. They should quit trying to pretend they still own that object.
No, I don't... but go on.
Did you even read what I originally wrote? This metaphor is the same as hardware players with hardware encryption. The door bouncers at the concert venue are the microchips checking to ensure that the ticket isn't a photocopy. I said that the media industry is free to attempt to implement this. See how far that business model gets them when we have to buy a new player every few years at $200 each.
Absolutely. One physical toothpick, one tissue, one sheet of toilet paper... until someone makes more.
There's no secret in the world that the everyday consumer has the technological capability to make more. That issue was brought up at the time CD writers were put on the market and the appropriate compensatory tax was added to the cost of blank CDs (supposedly).
Get over it. Face reality.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.