Slashdot Mirror
Australia Considering P2P 'Three Strikes' Law
caitsith01 writes "ITNews reports that Australia's ever-unpopular Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, has foreshadowed new action by the Australian Government to crack down on illegal file sharing under the guise of promoting the digital economy. Options apparently being considered include the controversial and previously reported French three-strikes approach and an approach which sounds suspiciously like New Zealand's even more dubious guilty-upon-accusation approach to filesharing. Needless to say, although the Government is consulting with 'representatives of both copyright owners and the Internet industry in an effort to reach an industry-led consensus on an effective solution,' arguably the most significant group — ordinary Internet users — are not being consulted. Senator Conroy is the man behind the crusade to 'protect' Australians from the horrors of the Internet with a mandatory, government-run blacklist, an effort which recently earned him the title of Internet Villain of the Year for 2009."
Good luck Stephen you old dog.
Despite the Sturm und Drang about copyright and filesharing here on Slashdot, most people really don't care one way or the other. Those that do care are so polarized on the issue that there isn't a middle ground to be had.
This is sad, because it didn't used to be this way. Early on, it was always clear that filesharers were breaking the copyright law and that something had to be done about it. What happened was a massive campaign to change the laws to crack down on illegal filesharers. Legal filesharing got caught in the rising tide, but we on the legal side of filesharing always said that it would be better for copyright holders to target the illegal filesharers directly rather than try to paint filesharing with a broad brush.
Then something happened. We got our wish. And suddenly a lot of the people who were calling for the heads of illegal filesharers were also putting their own heads on the chopping block. Now instead of outcry over copyright holders suing everybody, the illegal filesharers are finding other ways to justify their illegal actions.
I find it sickening that a group as creative and smart as the Slashdot community could be so blind to the value of copyright. I share all my code under the GPL because that is what I feel works best for me, but I wholly understand the desire to keep things strictly copyrighted on the part of others. The idea that these people are somehow in the wrong for trying to exercise control over their own works is a bad mind virus, and I'm afraid that the tenor of stories like this are indicative of a fatal infection.