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Australian Media 'Crooks' to Come in from the Cold
pagefault writes "News.com is reporting that millions of Australians who tape TV shows and copy CDs will soon get the right to do it with a clear conscience. From the article: 'The Federal Government will next year legalize the video recording of television shows for personal use, and the transfer of songs from CDs to MP3 players, in a bid to overturn a ban which has made criminals of much of the population."
If everyone does it, then maybe its not so illegal.
I can finally come out of my bunker!
Australia legalizes P2P and suddenly they aren't a nation of criminals?
Sure! Tell that to the British!
But yet to be decided is whether a levy will be slapped on the store price of blank CDs and MP3 players, such as iPods, to compensate artists for the revenue they stand to lose under the new laws.
But didn't this law change come about because it was a law that just about everybody was breaking anyway? So nothing changes. So what do the artists lose under the new laws??
"Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
Another pathetic attempt by the media companies to gouge the consumers for as much as they can. The new proposed legislation, whilst giving consumers a "clear" conscience, will punish them via a Canada like tax on blanks and iPods. Surely a blatant attempt by the media companies to get back at Apple for refusing to allowing to gouge the consumer even more by the 99c/song price.
...wasn't most of the population criminals to begin with?
"in a bid to overturn a ban which has made criminals of much of the population."
But without most of the population being criminals it just wouldn't be Australia!
Wow, I didn't know about these laws. Were they enforced often, or just placed on the books so that they could say they did, and then largely ignored? If they're as wide-reaching as they seem (I didn't RTFA), there's no way they could be enforced enough to modify people's behavior, right?
Those who anthropomorphize science and/or nature already believe in an intelligent designer.
Now how long until the RIAA throws a hissy fit and starts throwing "legal insults"?
I don't think anyone's going to be breathing a sigh of relief because the law seemed both unenforced and unenforcable. If it really made criminals of most of the population, then the average citizen probably didn't worry about this law much, if at all.
OTOH, I like seeing Australia taking a more friendly stance on this. Although the change will mean very little for the citizens, it's a message that they're declaring this stance instead of leaving it de facto.
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
ok, so thats good, all the skumma pirates can copy there poxy britney spears and whatver other fag is tyring to take their cash, but as everone is doing it we'll make it legal, yea right, but i'm not alowed to walk around with 3 oz of weed 20 pills and a dash of nutmeg. but it's ok. everybody rip off the music industry and pretend your not criminals, thats ok.
...which is easier than working for a living.
We had the levy for cassette tape decades ago. I think we can assume it will go on this time as well.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
The summary states that those that record shows for personal use can now do so "with a clear conscience." Either they thought it was an ethical practice before, or the still dont now. The law, and what people belive is ethical have nothing to do with each other. The changing of a law is not going to change people's belief about what is right and wrong.
/pedantic
I seriously doubt someone had unclear conscience while trying to copy his own CD-s to his own mp3 player.
Again brainwashing in action to make what's moral and what's legal the same thing.
If they outlaw living should I have bad conscience for being alive?
I mean, I live in Canadam, and I can buy a spindle of 50 blank CDRs for 8.99 CDN or so on sale, 50 DVDs for 9.99. Thats 18 measly cents a disc for CDRs or 20 cents a disc for DVDs... its even less for DVDs if you figure it per GB. The levy is pretty much irrelevant.
Yes, Australia started out as a group of penal colonies (mostly)...
Yes, There were a lot of penal settlements...
However, most of the people sentenced for transportation were sentenced for quite petty "crimes", say, stealing a loaf of bread or poaching a rabbit so their kids didn't die of starvation.... obviously a hanging offense. It was the 18th century equivalent of running a red light. They still managed to tame the harshest continent on earth and prosper, creating one of the greatest egalitarian societies the world has ever seen.
Secondly, that still only accounted for a very small minority of the population. I'm hazy on the exact figures but only about 4% of the Aus population have any convict descent at all, something like 40% of the current population wasn't even BORN here. Add to that the vast numbers of free settlers who immigrated here over the last 2 hundred years seeking a better life while creating the worlds only multicultural success story (apart from the occasional whacko who appears in every society, and some recent blown-out-of-proportion beach riots where the citizenry took back the beach from thug troublemakers of Middle-Eastern appearance).
Add in the worlds best beaches, coral reefs, rainforests, snow country and general quality of life and all-in-all we feel sorry for anyone who DOESN'T live here. Accuse me of parochialism as much as you want, the fact remains it's God's Own Country with pretty much all of the advantages found elsewhere without most of the disadvantages. Sure we don't get it right all the time but hey, it's pretty damn close.
Now contrast that with a country (no names) who was founded by extremist religious whack-jobs fleeing incarceration once Europe finally took out the trash, who eagerly embraced slavery, who eliminated pretty much all of the native population, who's Founding Fathers were mainly sozzled drunks beating their manservants and who now comprises 5% of the worlds population but accounts for over 50% of the worlds drug usage and who gun each other down by the tens of thousands in the streets each year.
A nation of peaceful, easy to live with honest people or a nation of murdering drug addicts ?..
wow, tough choice....
Oh, and British people are generally ugly and have major personal hygeine problems, so we can forget about them too !
Australia never had Fair Use laws in copyright, it was always just assumed it was ok, now I guess its good there is legislation to protect the consumer.
Australias has to adopt DMCA under the Australian/American Free Trade agreement so I guess its a little late for this now though.
The bigger worry is for the TV channels who stand to lose the most from advertising revenues. More and more people record shows off television simply so they can watch it later to skip through the adverts. If advertisers stop paying premium rates for prime time television, then there is a big risk the quality of the shows will go down due to large inshow advertising "hi joey, i see your enjoying a thirst quenching sprite!" because it's the only way to get the adverts to be watched (assuming people actually watch Joey).
I'm an Australian and I know of four police officers who are absolutely aware of my mp3(/ogg) collection. My collection is ripped from cd's that I legitimately own using sound-juicer and put onto my ipod using gtkpod. The police officers that have knowledge of this have part-taken in usage of my ipod to play these 'illegal' tracks and in three cases the officers themselves have children (or personally) who have mp3's both legal and illegal.
So I ask; how can the police enforce a law/requirement that they themselves do not respect? Further more I welcome this ruling from our great overlords (who I voted against) as it will stop most of the population being made criminals for using some thing (fairly) that they paid for. Kudos.
PS. Please don't arrest me and use this post* in court as an admittance of breaking the law!
*In the event that this post is used in the above fashion it is a complete fabrication! *Hides in his Bunker!
I ate your fish.
The continent of Australia really is entirely populated by criminals! Vizinni was right.
Yes, I would - "Do you consider the British prison guards, governors, and other administrative personnel criminals?" Hired or appointed mercenary functionaries of an extremely exploitative and imperialistic "royal" based autocracy are criminals by default, the most commonly used slang term would be "fascist pigs". The entire concept of "lords" and "commoners" is criminal.
I doubt the ones (outside of Australia, preferably.. AMERICA) that do this illegaly do infact somehow have an unclear conscience. Since, you know, they totally can't stop dragging icons of mp3 files back and forth. "OMFG I can't stop doing it!! AAH! 5 seconds left!"
Good for Australia, now how about we push this sort of law towards the western hemisphere?
Australia does have Fair Use (or "Fair Dealing") provisions in copyright, it's just that home recording/time shifting isn't one of those provisions.
Australian Fair Dealing provisions allow for:
- research or study
- criticism or review
- reporting of news
- professional advice given by a legal practitioner or patent attorney
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Imagine that, considering it started off as a prison colony...
We get the best television America can produce!
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
The question I have never seen addressed is how levies on the sale of blank CD/DVD media is/may be divided up by such organisations such as the RIAA or ARIA (Australia) and given to artists. It may be all well and good to say that the money goes to artists, but in practice I very much doubt it, it is just going to go into the general coffers of the relevant recording industry association to use as they see fit.
So, does anyone know where there is a published policy of how such money does supposedly get allocated to artists?
Those crazy Aussies might get away with it for now, but pay attention to the way this kind of story will spin into the future.
The entertainment conglomerates will use the media to reinforce their position that any free content is bad while they pay the Aussie gov't to allow them to maintain their dominance.
It was fun while it lasted.
Australian Media 'Crooks' to Come in from the Prison Colony
In Australia, Federal Government legalizes you!
I see the day when we will have the same restrictions. Look at the MPAA, RIAA. They are constantly trying to close the "Analog Hole". They want to make it illegal to timeshift. How well do you think your TIVO will work when you can only get the signal via their box. They provide one you say? Guess what happens when there is no competition in any given field? The choices suck.
[US President]: Hey, I hear that you are letting your minions copying CDs down there. You do remember the agreement we had right?
[AUS President]: huh?
[US President]: The FREE trade agreement?
[AUS President]: Oh yeah, I forgot. Don't worry, should be fixed in a jiffy. Btw, I got to get back to Australia in a week. The people seems to get a bit worried when their president is away for more than a few months.
[US President]: Ok, I guess I can replace you with an intern. Go ahead and get out from underneath my desk.
All hail to our Yanky overlords. I, as an Australian, welcome our inclusion into the United States of America as its newest state. I also welcome renaming our parliament to "Congress" and our Prime Minister to "President". One can only hope that the states will outsource its prison facilities over here.
If I can do it, its probably not worth doing... probably
but what's the catch? I have no evidence but my gut is telling me that this is diversion from something more insidious.
I just can't be bothered.
If you multiply those 18 or 20 cents by millions of blank CDs and DVDs, you'll see that millions of dollars are being stolen...
I don't know what elementary school you went to, but here in Canada $1,000,000 * $0.01 = $10,000, hadly anything of importance to the multi-national record labels that do tens of billions on revenue a year.
I don't know what kind of pot you'd have to be smoking to think that millions of pennies would mean anything to any decent sized corperation.
"...greatest egalitarian societies the world has ever seen."
really? i wonder what the the REAL natives of Australia actually have to say about your "egalitarian" comment.
maybe if you opened a history book once in a while, and give your brain a chance to get into gear before running your fucking mouth, you might not be labeled a fucking tool of a troll.
Good for Australia.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
... is still considered quite criminal by US law. Even by the slashdot crowd agrees that it's criminal (golly gee, it's physical property of which the victim is actually deprived!). I doubt that it's any different in Britain.
Just because we don't send people to Australia for it doesn't make it not a crime. We don't send people to Australia for a lot of things these days.
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
Just to insert a little sanity here. In Australia, most copyright violations are prosecuted in the civil courts (exceptions include sale of couterfeit goos, called 'passing off'). It is only in corrupt countries where the media corporations can easily buy new laws that such things have fallen under criminal prosecution.
Let's not even begin to talk about the DCMA, the shiny new laws which make videotaping a movie in a theatre more heavily punished than several types of killing, or the perpetual copyright on Mickey Mouse or anything else that american corporations bother to pay supreme court justices for.
Nihil Illegitemi Carborvndvm
Does that mean that if I steal a loaf of bread, that I get free airfare to Australia?
Of course many of them were sent there for being debtors. Now in the US, we just file bankrupcy. Although, maybe if we had debtors prisons, fewer people would plan to go into bankrupcy.
remember that the Recording Industry Association of AMERICA has little sway in Australia
RIAA and ARIA policies are set by their members. If the four major labels are members of both organizations, and they set the same general policy in both organizations, then is there a real difference?
Oh hey RIAA do you want to tie your own noose or should we just let Australia do it for you?
"Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important." (Lisa Hoffman)
But yet to be decided is whether a levy will be slapped on the store price of blank CDs and MP3 players, such as iPods, to compensate artists for the revenue they stand to lose under the new laws.
They're kidding, right? What about the people who fill those CDs with linux installers, photos, and the countless gazillions of other things that aren't pirated music, or buy songs for their iPod from iTunes?
Everyone is born right-handed; only the greatest overcome it
And explains why Americans and Australians are so similar (of course we got all those giddy religous people with our criminals). Meh.
Quack, quack.
ARIA has zero political clout in Australia. Remember all that fuss about parallel importing and how it was going to destroy Australina artists? Well ARIA tried to stop it with a political and public campaign (remember the TV ads?). They failed.
Years later, the local music scene is thriving, and CD prices have... well at least stopped rising if not actually come down.
Before the US Congress is passing a resolution to refuse to co-operate with Australia unless they change their laws to protect American IP again, as they were -
because we all know that this is *exactly* what the RIAA wants here Stateside, right? To make you buy the CD, buy the MP3, and then buy it again when the license expires.
Thinking outside my Head
They were a penal colony founded on crimials, but their nation was definitely NOT founded on a basis of criminality, regardless of what the british thought at the time.
That's much like America... from King George's point of view, America is a country founded by "terrorists". We practically *invented* guerilla warfare, for christ's sake.
It's all a matter of perspective. My British friends celebrate July Fourth as "Good Riddance Day".
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Only if you're not an asylum seeker. :)
While I (as an Australian citizen) would be first to say this is a good thing, let's not get all excited. What this is giving us is nothing more than what our yankee friends have had for years - the ability to time-shift and format-shift. And what's more, they're talking of making us pay for it, in the form of a media levy.
On the other hand, it is a pleasant surprise to see a government actually taking a look at reality, and adjusting it's laws thusly, rather than trying to do it the other way around.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Having spent a fair bit of time eyeballing the intellectual property provisions of the FTA back when I was living in Australia (and thus more concerned about it than I am now), I was pretty sure that we've agreed to criminalise copying CDs (or was that bypassing Technical Prevention Measures (TPMs) which are increasingly common these days). Anyway, we're confusing the issues. We SHOULD be able to copy CDs for our own purposes (I'd much rather carry an iPod with my entire collection than a backpack of CDs, many of which are irreplacible). We SHOULD NOT be able to steal music using P2P software et al. The cost of criminalising the former in the name of preventing the latter is too great.
We also did some other stupid things to ensure 'justice' prevailed, including telling judges how to do their job by insisting that they consider the retail value of copies even if that is not realised (ie if your 10y/o son downloads the latest Disney tripe, selling at the time for AUD50 as a DVD, and it sits in [insert your favourite P2P software here] for 6 months during which time 100,000 copies are made then you are to be tried for AUD5,000,000 of piracy despite having nothing to show for it but an AUD10,000 Telstra bill).
There I go confusing the issues again... downloading from P2P networks IS theft (even in a world where CD/DVD prices are extortionate); making the most of your intellectual property license (ie CD/DVD purchase) by transforming the work into more convenient formats is not.
"We should not treat everyday Australians who want to use technology to enjoy copyright material they have obtained legally as infringers where this does not cause harm to our copyright industries."
I wonder who's running around with the cluestick? EFA?
"But yet to be decided is whether a levy will be slapped on the store price of blank CDs and MP3 players, such as iPods, to compensate artists for the revenue they stand to lose under the new laws."
Rick, is that you?
True, the first fleet and the great majority of the first bunch of people or so sent to Australia were convicts, but a vast number of free colonists migrated to Australia after that. Adelaide was started as a free colony. Melbourne grew because of gold. Sydney started as a penal colony.
There was a census done.. I forgot exactly when.. perhaps a hundred years after Australia was first settled by the Brits; 1788-1888. Of the entire European population in Australia, convicts and their descendants accounted for only 10%.
...For destroying any semblance of a sense of humor you might have had.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Possibly the fastest way to show how out-of-date the copyright laws are in a country like Australia or New Zealand (where it is technically illegal to format-shift or record shows or whatever) is to sue someone on behalf of the Music Industry as a "friend".
Make a public warning ahead of the actual action, publically stating that some unnamed poor sod will be legally sued into oblivion, and then follow through with the threat (and any subsequent appeals.
Of course, finding a person to do this and take all the flak for this type of action would be near impossible.
The mind boggles at how the music industry would react to having a "friend" sue all the normal users of their music...
"There I go confusing the issues again... downloading from P2P networks IS theft"
What if I already own the CD? whom exactly, is now missing the song I alledgedly stole?
No, at worse it is copyright infringment, which should be a civil matter.
Perhaps using clear and accurate language you wouldn't confuse the issue so much?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I concede that ARIA doesn't have the same clout that the RIAA has, but the story doesn't just end there.
As has already been mentioned, ARIA and the RIAA have essentially the same members. I think we all agree that the RIAA has a *lot* of political clout in America (too much, but then, so do most commercial industries in the US). Ruddock (the Australian Attorney General) is on the record as saying that the Australian government wants to make its copyright and IP laws as compatible as possible with America.
It therefore seems reasonable to assume that if a company can't get its own way in Australia through the ARIA, they can apply pressure through the RIAA to make it happen anyway. It just takes longer.
I started copying my LPs to tape on a Revox reel-to-rell recorder in 1954, for the convenience of not having to turn a platter every few minutes and the choice of making my own compilations. I later began copying on-air broadcasts, then P2P file-sharing, as I did not like being force-fed whole albums when all I wanted was one or two tracks. All of my home listening now comes from a computer.
Minstrels used to sing for their supper - but they weren't spoilt brats with expensive drug habits. File-sharing is great advertising for live performances.
paleoflatus
Actually, New Zealand has some of the most liberal fair use laws in the western hemisphere. Time shifting, transferring data from one medium to another, "backups," etc. are all perfectly legal.
Australia by contrast has implemented draconian IP laws in order to obtain a "free trade" pact with the United States.
Depends on whether you talk to an Australian Aborigine or a professional victim. Anywhere you get kudo$ for being a victim, you'll find the professional whingers. They're not the best people to talk to if you want a view of the world which has any basis in reality.
"Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11
And the law shouldn't address a levy on blank media, since so many people make their own mix CDs, dumps to their mp3 players, etc. all with legally purchased music/TV.
Every fucking time there's an Australian story this comes up; right after the Simpsons jokes. This might have been slightly amusing 50 years ago when it was invented, not any more. If I posted similar anti-American jokes in every story that mentioned the country I'd be in negative karma in no time, but anti-foreigners is "funny".
When the Aus Govt. signed the free trade agreement with the US it practically meant that Australia would need to enforce the same copyright laws (Read DMCA) in America.
So how does this relate to the article? Australia is missing 'fair use' term/clause/law in American law and thus makes acts like the DMCA very difficult to enforce. While having 'fair use' terms in Australia may seem good i would argue that this is leading to more 'severe' laws. Minus the lack of fair use Australian copyright laws have traditionally been fair, not sure how this will change in the future.
What about DRM that prevents you from copying your CD onto your MP3 player? Will this become illegal in Australia since it would impinge on your right to do so under the law? Here's hoping. This is a win for the rights of the people to watch or listen to content they paid for at their own convenience or device of choice. :D
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I agree that it's an old, stupid joke, but how is it anti-Australian? It's just a joke about a country, and they're all like that, aren't they... I thought Australians are more like proud of the "criminal history" of their country, not ashamed of it, but I could be wrong here.
But...the actions for trying to lift a loaf of bread don't really seem to fit the crime per se, but do so to keep the rest of the store's customers from doing it.
But if that were also the case, then gas stations would be allowed to have remote-control semi-autonomous machine gun turrets on the roofs of their buildings to shoot drive-offs.
brainwashers keep repeating it, I won't buy it, never! Intellectual property in all of its forms is immoral, I do not accept it. Copying is never theft. Theft means the originator no longer has the item. The copying of ideas and duplication of bits never is.
I do not believe that an economy based on the concept of intellectual property is guaranteed to be better. Yes, having good ideas and brains should be rewarded, but it does not have to be through state protection. I have good ideas every day on my job (as an independant consultant), I get recognition and good references for that, which enables me to find new and well paid contracts.
A company that is the first, in these fast times, already has a decisive advantage time-wise to profit, they don't need state protection IMHO.
As for the arts: they flourished in the past (highlights in the 18th and 19th centuries w.r.t music/composers, for example) without any state protection. I am 100% convinced that artists don't need to be very rich for them to produce art. In fact, historically, most artists have been rather poor. True art (music, sculpture, drama, literature) doesn't have ANYTHING to do with lots of money. Todays commercialism rather destroys it.
I am 100% convinced that some types of "entertainment" would have to change without state protection, but also that something better would come into its place. Art and entertainment have always existed, 1000s of years before anyone though of the idea of copyrights etc. And yes, it will damage an industry today, but others (e.g. consumer electronics) will grow instead. It has always been like that, the invention of electricity also made a lot of jobs redundant but brought a lot of different (often better) jobs.
Well, I had a good laugh, and I'm Australian. Strangely I hadn't heard that one before.
As a general rule the "little person" in Australia with their iPod doesn't get much attention, but bigger places tend to be targets.
For example, at one of the local Australian universities the policy is "no mp3s". Doesn't matter if they are rips of your personal legally-owned CDs, you can't have them. I was asked to enforce this when I started doing some IT work for the Uni, and me being me, I immediately questioned why. Turns out the Uni lawyer(s) checked up on the laws, and the Uni can be stung for it. Hence the ban. Here's hoping the change in laws fixes this little problem, so I just have to ask if they are legally ripped mp3s and can move on if they are, rather than having to explain why they can't be kept on the Uni IT equipment.
I'm an Australian and I know of four police officers who are absolutely aware of my mp3(/ogg) collection...So I ask; how can the police enforce a law/requirement that they themselves do not respect?
Because copyright infringement is a civil law, not a criminal law. It's got nothing to do with the police. If there's a copyright owner somewhere that wants to sue, they can, but either way, the police will not be involved as a matter of law.
See the comments here.
a l%20Rights&subcategory=Travel%20%26%20entertainmen t&docid=1800&topic=Copyright%20law&title=Your%20ri ghts%20explained&contenttype=summary&bhcp=1
http://www.consumer.org.nz/topic.asp?category=Leg
I believe it's still under discussion.
As the goatse man would say "They can close my a-hole when they prise it from my cold dead fingers!"
No one who tells the joke does it as a sign of respect, it's a sneering putdown. Incidentally, my family came over in the Gold Rush, I don't have any convicts in my family tree that I know of, though if I did I wouldn't be ashamed, neither would I be proud. Are American blacks proud of their "slave history"? Would you joke with then (assuming you're not black) asking where their shackles are? Or ask a Jew to show his Auschwitz tattoo? Actually, I wouldn't be so sensitive if this crap didn't come up every time Australia is mentioned here. Continual baiting wears you down.
The people may be criminals, but the govt is innocent, where as in the usa, the govt
are the criminals, judging from revelations and kick backs and stuff you see on prisonplanet.com
Am I the only one who is reading this change as a move towards Australia bringing it's lame but at least largely unenforced copyright laws "up" to par with the USA as per the FTA? This really is just the begining of the end for Australian copyright law... such that it is.
Seems like DMCA is just around the corner to me.
...if my company experience is anything to go by. We recently changed the VPN software to Connectra (from Secureremote). Connectra tunnels through HTTP and can be used in a web cafe or any machine. As part of its initialisation its checks for Antivirus being installed and up-to-date, and more importantly Malware. If Malware is found, it will not allow connection to the VPN until the machine is disinfected. This includes Kazaa, etc.... You can imagine the choorus of disapproval that went up from employees accessing (or trying to!) from their home machines. One had 30 types of malware. Some even complained to upper management, some begged for the checks to be disabled. Unsurprisingly we didn't change the policy. This will be a sharp shock to many, but its needed.
"Incidentally, my family came over in the Gold Rush"
Bingo! Sending people to Australia was akin to a moon shot 200yrs ago. Penal colonies were just that, colonies. Gold was the reason for the first big jump in immigration for both the US & Australia.
As for TFA, IIRC we were alowed to tape TV shows for personal use before we signed the FTA? I just love it when they give stuff back and make it sound magnanamous!
For those of you who don't know Ruddock, he is the guy who locks up children in the desert.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Is the crime a crime because your crops failed for the third year running (since thats all the absentee landlord will let you grow) and your wife and children are starving to death by the roadside? The law is, simply put, a system for exacting revenge for wrongdoings. If the law fails in that regard, or worse turns against those it is meant to protect, I would feel fully justified in breaking it, regardless of the letter of the law. Not that the laws back then were meant to protect anyone but the landed gentry; it in fact suited british authorities to deport as many peasants as possible to far-off lands. I'm not talking about taping movies on your VCR, I'm talking about survival.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
"Just because we don't send people to Australia for it doesn't make it not a crime."
The law is an ass, were the people helping themselves to food and water after Katrina, looters? This is why judges exist and why they should not be constrained by mandatory sentences. Unfortunately a majority of the US supreme court now thinks it's ok for a cop to shoot a fleeing suspect regardless of the crime.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Guess who got an iPod for Christmas?
insecurity asks the wrong question irritation gives the wrong answer
Ditto.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I've heard of some countries (Canada, for example?) having levies on blank CDs and MP3 players. The article mentions this is a possibility for Australia too. My question is how does the money raised by these levies find its way to the copyright holders? (Artists, publishers and so on.)
I mean in a practical sense, is there a form that you fill in to state that you are the copyright holder for a particular work, and then they hand over a bit of cash as your cut of the pool? Could I write and record a song, release it under my own label, then make a claim for blank media compensation? Or would I have to be a "recognised" popular artist, or signed to a big record label before the compensation kicks in? I'm genuinely curious to know how the money raised by these levies gets distributed.
They were a penal colony founded on crimi(n)als, but their nation was definitely NOT founded on a basis of criminality, regardless of what the british thought at the time.
;-)
You do know why Aussies refer to one another as "Mates" don't you?
It's short for "inmates"
51 - Mexico
52 - Puerto Rico
53 - Canada
54 - Autralia
While I live in the US, I am still one of those evil communist people who actually have the gall to record television programs and watch them at a later time. Even worse, I'll admit to having copied CD tracks to a personal mp3 player.
My television recording is done using a hard disk.
My copying from CD to mp3 player does not involve using any blank media.
Therefore, my horrible crimes would not be paying any tax to the media executiv... er, um, I meant to the artists.
Since I, and people like me must use electricity to carry out these acts, maybe a tax on electricity would be better? Or a tax on computers? Or maybe a tax on anything digital? Maybe a tax on digits?
Ultimately, this situation can be fixed in a fair and equal way by simply making all media available to everyone for free and imposing upon every person a tax on hearing and seeing. This tax would go to the existing copyright holders so that they could be properly compensated forever and ever and ever. Amen.
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
Laugh it off, its what makes us better then US
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You will never relay find out im afraid, they (the first wave natives) where killed by the secodn wave ones. Not one bit of DNA from the orignal humans who setaled Australia walks this earth alive.
5 8.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s2545
"Adcock found that Mungo Man's mitochondrial DNA is no longer found in humans. In fact, Adcock has reconstructed a family tree that places Mungo Man before "Mitochondrial Eve", the hypothetical common ancestor from which all of us have inherited our mitochondrial DNA."
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
My question is how does the money raised by these levies find its way to the copyright holders? (Artists, publishers and so on.)
Basically, all the people not signed by an RIAA label get a net 4% of the goods taken by blank media taxes (they don't have RIAA lobby dollars working for them). RIAA-signed artists get a total of 38.4% of the take, and the RIAA member publishers get 57.6% of the take. Note that this is a description from the RIAA, so that 38.4% may potentially be siphoned off into that 57.6% via fees orwhat-have-you.
It's irritating knowing that a percentage chunk of sales of many computer storage devices goes to lobbyists working to punch holes in free use, and even more irritating knowing that despite the fact that I have to pay for potential infringement, I *still* don't get to infringe legally.
You know...every time the RIAA complains that they need to be around to fund artists, and it's important that they exist to do so, and if they didn't get federal protection in the form of funds...I wonder what would happen if *100%* of that tax went to artists -- publishers not included. That *would* fund artists, presumably cutting out the middleman. Never going to happen, but an fun thought.
Another interesting idea -- an artist can choose to be supported by blank media sales *but* need to place all their work into the public domain *or* be supported by regular retail sales but not get any blank media sale funding.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
If it makes you feel any better, the US was a prison labour colony for Africans.
The history books were all mistaken about the slaves. This is what really happened.
Long ago in Africa they had a pretty good society, economic development. Things were just peachy. Then these white Americans came over for international trade. They proposed to the African governments about the privatized prisons they have. Basically, the Africans were convinced that they should outsource their prison system. It made sense, and the bottom line was that they saved thousands of dollars (a lot of money in those days, but in this age, it would be the equivalent to one bajillion dollars!!)
So the African penal system was outsourced to the Americans. This caused an uproar because African penal workers were worried about losing their jobs, but the Americans said they could be brought over to run them. So things were ok. Criminals were caught and sentenced and sent to the American penal colony where they were forced to work in cotton fields to repent for their crimes. So you see, criminals are everywhere. It's not about being Anti-Foreigners, or Anti-American, it's about Anti-hiding the truth. And we all know the truth is out there.
Besides, this is what a friend of a friend of a friend told me.
Live forever, or die trying.
Re-fucking-lax.
You said "Australian" and "Crook" in the same sentence. One or the other, both together are a tautology.
"They're not the best people to talk to if you want a view of the world which has any basis in reality."
and i could say the exact same thing about revisionists who attempt to strike from the record any injustices and suffering of a people from the history book (see holocaust).
But what does either have to do with what the gp said?
Are you suggesting if you asked an Aborigine about Australia being the most successful egalatarian country, sorry 'greatest',
their reply wouldn't be similar with the gp's rhetorical remarks?
well please educate us sir and tell us what the majority of Aborigines actually think then? i mean you obviously know because you seem to imply with your comment that you actually know what an aborigine would say instead of a "professional whinger".
Yes, some; and no, not remotely, in that order. Many blacks ARE proud of their slave heritage, because they survived it and "became stronger".
On the other hand, I wouldn't make jokes about it, nor about the Nazi thing, but those are both recent events (on a historical scale) and it's not time for that yet.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Don't get too carried away here, as this isn't the first time Australians have been told their VCR etc. activities will be legalized. - and don't think this a generous act by the government. It isn't; if VCR etc. copying/recording is legalized it won't be out of any politicians generosity. It will be to comply with Australia's obligations under the Free Trade Agreement to bring our copyright laws into line with those of the U.S.A.
Part of that is adopting as many US laws as possible, through the guise of the FTA. Copyright is one of those, having been greatly influenced by the RIAA. The link is not direct and more of a consequence of RIAAs US efforts.
It is likely that the RIAA is fully aware that through bilateral FTAs it can effectively ensure that numerous other nations adopt whatever they are able to push into law in the US, without having to expend any additonal effort themselves, other than lobbying to make sure that 'copyright protections' are part and parcel of any bilateral agreement.