Pro-DRM Law May Be Coming To Australia

paxmaniac writes, "The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Australian Federal Government will soon introduce laws making it illegal to circumvent copy control 'technological prevention measures' (or TPMs). The laws will make it illegal to modchip a console, to hack a DVD player to make it multi-region, to install DVD decoders on your PC, or to circumvent DRM in any other way. From the article: 'Anyone found to have used technology to circumvent copy control TPMs will face fines of up to $6600, while those guilty of distributing enabling devices and services to others through a variety of means face imprisonment for up to five years and possible fines of $60,500.' Australia is obliged to introduce these laws as part of it's Free Trade Agreement with the USA. Gee thanks, George!"

Comments

Let me just say, on behalf of all Americans,

[TheDrewbert]

we sincerely appologize to all Australians. We are taking steps to correct this error.

Thanks a lot, George?

[ziggyzig]

How is this GWB's fault? I'm all for criticizing when appropriate (see laundry list of details from Gitmo to secret prisons), but the little parting shot at the end just seems inflammatory.

FYI - Signed in 1994

Re:Thanks a lot, George?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm... that's the NORTH AMERICAN free trade agreement. Last time I checked, Australia is not part of North America. I believe the free trade agreement in question is this one, which came into effect in 2005.

Re:Thanks a lot, George?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

You linked to the wrong agreement. The older NAFTA is North American Free Trade Agreement, for Canada, US and Mexico, so it doesn't involve Australia. The New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement doesn't involve the US and isn't called that anymore. The agreement is the AUSFTA - Australia US Free Trade Agreement, according to the Australian Government, it was signed in 2006.

http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/us.html

Re:Thanks a lot, George?

[Eccles]

How is this GWB's fault?

'It was not until early 2001, after the election of George W. Bush in the US and with John Howard in power in Australia, that a US-Australia FTA finally began to take shape. In April 2001, President Bush signalled his interest in pursuing an FTA with Australia provided "everything is on the table".'

[...]

'the text was finally agreed to in February 2004, and signed off on by Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile and [Bush appointee] US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick in Washington in May 2004.'

(Source Wikipedia, but unless you can find something to contradict, I'm going with it.)

All Congress got to do was ratify the agreement as negotiated.

Sorry boys, but you most definitely can blame Bush.

Not that I like him

[Kusand]

But i sincerely doubt Bush had any direct effect on this law. You might want to start by being mad at Orrin Hatch and working your way through the rest of the U.S. Congress if you're going to complain.

Re:Uhh..

[grantdh]

2. Manufacturer will be required to discontinue offering region free DVD players. Simple as that.

Which is interesting as, here in Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (an independent government authority for fair competition & trade) ruled that DVD region encoding was anti-competitive a few years back. Since then, all DVD players sold in Australia must be either region free or be sold with instructions on how to unlock them.

They even went up against SONY about mod-chipping PS2's, saying it was an Australian's right to purchase games overseas and play them on systems here.

It's always interesting to find a government agency going up against it's own government in the courts over shit like this...

For more info:
ACCC comments re: region coding

ACCC vs SONY on PS2 modchips