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Big Media and Big Telcos Getting Nasty In Landmark Australian Law Case
Fluffeh writes "In Australia, we have the right to record TV and play it back at a later date; we also have the right to transcode from one format to another, so anyone with a media server can legally back up their entire DVD collection and watch it without all those annoying warnings and unskippable content — as long as we don't break encryption (please stop laughing!). Optus, Australia's second largest Telco, has been raising ire though with the new TV Now service they are offering and Big Media is having a hissy fit. The service does the recording on behalf of the customer. Seems like a no-brainer right? Let the customer do what they are allowed to legally do at home, but charge them for it. Everybody wins! Not according to Sports Broadcasters, who made this statement when Optus said they would appeal their recent loss in an Australian Court to the highest court in the land: 'They are a disgusting organization who is acting reprehensibly again and now putting more uncertainty into sports and broadcast rights going forward I'm really disappointed and disgusted in the comments of their CEO overnight.' Is this yet another case of Big Media clutching at an outdated business model, or should consumers be content with just doing their own work?"
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A few weeks ago, I foolishly ran a strange executable file that one of my acquaintances sent me by email. As someone who doesn't know much about computers, at the time, I thought nothing of it. "Why would my acquaintance want to hurt me?" Following this line of thought, I ran the file without question.
How naive I was. Despite having what was supposedly the best anti-virus software out right then, a virus took over my computer and held it hostage. It was pretending to be a warning from Windows telling me to buy some strange anti-virus software I'd never heard of from a company I'd never heard of to remove the virus.
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Well, to begin, I'm just your average guy. But unlike your average guy, I once had everything anyone could ever want: a gorgeous wife, a beautiful two-story house, an adorable seven year old daughter, a stable job, and a nice salary. Basically, I was living the American dream. None of my needs or wants were left unfulfilled. The family always got along, and everything was perfect.
Until one day, that is. Following one of my routine doctor appointments, my doctor informed me that I had lung cancer and that I only had a few years to live at most. As you can imagine, I was shocked. Not just shocked; I could see all of my hopes and dreams being shattered right before my very eyes. Still, my doctor gave me hope by telling me that there was a chance, however slim, that Chemotherapy and various other things could help me. After speaking with my wife, I decided to receive the treatments.
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The family I thought I could count on betrayed me. My wife, whom I loved deeply, filed for a divorce. She said that she could not handle the emotional trauma of being with someone who had cancer. She apologized profusely, but no matter what I said, I could not change her mind. I screamed, I cried, and I begged her to rethink her decision, but it was all to no avail.
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My daughter was absolutely overjo
I've heard of that...
... for mycleanPC... malware - they do realise their wasting their spambots posting that crud on slashdot no?
that people want to to watch it, let alone record it is beyond me.
(also two spam posts above me
Does Optus have broad enough rights in its broadcast license terms from the content producers to essentially rebroadcast content on an on-demand basis, because that is what they are essentially doing. There is a difference between the customer recording it and the telco doing it for them, as one involves rebroadcasting of the content and the other does not.
Get some better spamvertising dude.
your constitution is weak. Prepare to be dominated by corporations.
"Is this yet another case of Big Media clutching at an outdated business model, or should consumers be content with just doing their own work?"
Both.
It's legal to hire someone else to do pretty much anything you can legally do yourself - I don't see why this would be any different.
If Optus wants to distribute works or broadcasts then let them pay a fee to the right's holders. If Optus won't pay then don't let them rebroadcast or distribute material that they don't own. If the right's holders don't want Optus selling their broadcasts for profit then don't let them either.
If people want to record shows or broadcasts on their own for home viewing then that is fine. No one is disputing that. It's not fine when a company is recording broadcasts that they don't own and then charging people to watch them. Producing broadcasts like sporting events costs a lot of money. I doubt that the companies that produce this content want other companies distributing their work without their permission.
It doesn't matter if people are ripping DVDs for home use or recording radio or TV broadcasts to watch later. But Optus was taking television broadcasts and basically streaming them online live.
Let's think about it
a) you pay in advance for rights to broadcast (free to air) to entire country (and we're talking geographical footprint of USA here)
b) whilst the right to time-shift is commonly accepted, the presumption was that for individual within a small space (eg household)
c) so to be fair, if one entity buys the right to space shift, having another claim time-shifting across the whole country defeats the purpose
You can argue the minute details of the law but on an equitable basis you can't have someone having exclusive broadcast rights with the effective duplication after a (relatively) miniscule delay.
You can legally do the same with a VCR you've rented .....
Which is essentially what Optus is doing here.
I would be nice if the OP was objective about the situation. The issue is about who is doing the recording, and in this case it technically wasn't the user, it was found to be Optus. You can still record and view later on your own equipment, but the technical matter here is who is doing the recording, it is found to be Optus, not the user, so it may have been a bit grey but now a legal decision has been made. I don't have to agree, but that is the situation. As for 'big media' the same situation could apply to any event or broardcast.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
We have similar rights to record, transcode, and back up media in Canada.
The Harpercrite goobermint is trying to enact a DMCA-type clause, which violates our rights to make backups and to transcode media. The argument against the legislation is that even the use of encryption violates our rights to record and transcode data, never mind how much more of a violation it would be to make it illegal to break the encryption.
Here's hoping both our nations can kick big media's arse once again as we have done repeatedly in the cases over the years that enshrined our existing rights.
Not every legal system on the planet is willing to suck up to big media like the USG.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Does this really surprise anyone?
You are free to do whatever you want to in this world, until such time as someone with more power than you discovers a way to make you pay for doing it.
Now two commercial interests have discovered a way to set up the same toll gate and bridge over the same river and neither wants to give up their perceived right to all the traffic they can handle, while denying the other.
Of course it's going to end up in a fight.
But what is really surprising is that the people who have to cross that bridge never take a side in this matter, since theoretically it's their elected representatives who get to decide which technological bridges have monopolies and which may co-exist.
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
"Going forward" and "let me be clear" are the 100% reliable signs that some NLP-trained (pseudoscience) management drone or worse, committee, have had a hand in designing what you are reading. Never trust anything you see these phrases in.
What is often overlooked in the media coverage of this issue - i haven't read the article but i assume it's no better - especially by the sporting bodies (AFL/NRL) and others is that the feed that Optus were providing this service on was a Free To Air broadcast. This creates the following situation:
Firstly, the sports bodies (AFL in particular) have sold the TV rights for a large sum of money separately to the "internet" rights. Telstra have the sole right to transmit over the internet, and are obviously pissed off about their competition. However the Free to Air networks should be jumping at the chance to get their feed to more people - after all, the more people watching increases the value of their advertising, and in theory would increase the value of the rights they have paid.
Secondly, with the focus on protecting the value of the internet rights alone they are missing two other opportunities - namely the chance to get non-Telstra subscribers to have access, and secondly the chance to get more people overall to watch the sport. More eyes is more advertising, more merchandise and more members - and possibly more gambling revenue too.
Finally, I have an objection to people complaining about what happens to a FTA broadcast once it's put into the air... I don't believe people should be able to make multiple copies and sell the works, but it's already being broadcast... the method for an individual recording and viewing should not matter.
This article is written to try and make us think one way and completely ignores the actual problem. The big issue was Optus was broadcasting(and earning money off) sports games at a couple of minute delays. Essentially, subverting the companies that hold the rights to broadcast. It also makes it sound as though it's just like recording at home. The difference is that they are earning money off content they don't have the rights to, where as recording something at home for private use is a different situation. The end user is within the confines of the law, rebroadcasting content that has been paid for by others and making a profit off it however isn't.
As a homeowner I can take out a permit from the power company and rewire my own house. Under the conditions of the permit, I cannot hire anyone to do the work for me.
The only legal alternative is to hire a certified electrician to do the work (in which case I don't need a permit).
"Bits on the wire" (or in the air) are "broadcast" to them.
That's because the law in some countries is written such that a "transmission" (or a "digital transmission") is special. Both a unicast and a broadcast are transmissions.
Is there a practical difference between streaming media from a media server in your house to a single device and streaming the same thing from a service provider to that same device?
Yes: it's a digital transmission from the premises.
It's legal to hire someone else to do pretty much anything you can legally do yourself
You can give yourself a handjob, but you can't hire a hooker to do the same.
In my country (BE), when you are unable to vote because for instance you are disabled and stuck in a bed, you can give someone else the right to vote in your place
Where I live, one votes by mail on an absentee ballot instead.
Do Rupert Murdoch and the rest of big media have the same power over who gets elected in Australia that they have in the USA?