Slashdot Mirror
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.
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?
"The levy is pretty much irrelevant."
Immorality knows no dollar signs. 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 from your fellow citizens and funneled to private interests under the assumption that each and every one of you are criminals. That's money that can be put to better use among the *productive* members of the economy. Moreover, those levies are going to an organization that represents only a small minority of the overall pool of musical talent in the country.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
"then there is a big risk the quality of the shows will go down "
Is it really possible for the quality of commercial prime time TV in Australia to sink lower?
Don't tailgate - the end is near!
'm an Australian and I know of four police officers who are absolutely aware of my mp3(/ogg) collection.
I'm an Australian and I know of a crap load of police officers who share music (burned CD's, mp3's, software) amongst each other, even doing it AT WORK.
Using the law to crack down on music file sharers in Australia is NOT about stopping the sharing. It is about extracting money from people or entities which have deep pockets. The fact that they go after ISP's and companies, instead of the file sharing users, is evidence of this.
A top Australian Lawyer or Barrister makes more in a day, than the typical 15 year old has in the worth of the entirety of his assets. The ISP those teens use on the other hand, have millions.
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.
The truth is, this is RIAA math (not the RIAA, but same kind). Remember that 4 blank CDs may cost $2 or whatever, but their value is the $150 that a 4 disc box set might cost (because that is what you could pirate with it). Logic, as usual for these kind of groups, does not apply.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
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.
Actually, it could mean a lot if it prevents things like the broadcast flag.
... 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
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.
The interesting thing is that when talk turns to MP3s, iPods and CD-ripping most people will have some idea that its 'illegal' in some way. Almost no one will let this modify their behaviour in any way though. However when it comes to old analogue technologies most people will have no idea that there is anything illegal about what they're doing. Literally just about every Australian home has had a VCR in it since the things first became popular back in the 80s or whenever it was. They're necessary in a country with only 5 TV networks and no cable-TV until the 1990s. No one would seriously think they were doing something wrong by video-taping a TV show.
I remember a few months back a Christian school here in Sydney was reported in the media for their students voluntarily giving up all their 'burned' CDs and such because they'd been taught copyright infringement was immoral. They even pinned their CD-Rs to a wall or something like that to show that they were serious. However I bet that if I walked into any one of their houses their parents would still have one or more VCRs, would have had a VCR continuosly for many, many years and over that time all members of the family would have committed vastly more acts of copyright infringements by taping TV shows and fast-forwarding the ads than anything they did on their iPods or CD-Burners.
Pre-canned Evolution Links for all those Slashdot holy wars.
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...
"Artist" in this context means "media corporations", and "lose" means "fail to gain".
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".
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.
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.