Australia Shelves Copyright Safe Harbor For Google, Facebook (torrentfreak.com)

In a surprise setback for companies such as Google and Facebook that leverage user-generated content, Australia has dropped plans to extend its copyright safe harbor provisions. From a report: In a blow to Google, Facebook and others, the government dropped the amendments before they were due to be introduced to parliament yesterday. That came as a big surprise, particularly as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had given the proposals his seal of approval just last week. "Provisions relating to safe harbor were removed from the bill before its introduction to enable the government to further consider feedback received on this proposal whilst not delaying the passage of other important reforms," Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said in a statement. There can be little doubt that intense lobbying from entertainment industry groups played their part, with a series of articles published in News Corp-owned The Australian piling on the pressure in favor of rightsholders.

Comments

Shakedown?

[Anonymous Coward]

Give us "campaign contributions", or your favorite law won't pass!

Google should just block Australia

[iCEBaLM]

At this point Google search is so entrenched all they would have to do is block all of Australia from accessing it and the internet immediately becomes useless in Australia.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

At this point Google search is so entrenched all they would have to do is block all of Australia from accessing it and the internet immediately becomes useless in Australia.

Ditto for Facebook as it also affects them.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[bluefoxlucid]

The fun part comes when Google starts obeying all the little wishlist things and so rightsholders's stuff stops getting as much visibility, thus sales.

Copyright is valid. Making a car requires an enormous capital investment for equipment, plus a ton of labor per-vehicle; the engineering expense to design that car is millions of dollars, and the production of that car is enormous. The Chevrolet Volt sold 21,000 units in 2012 and 25,000 in 2013, at MSRPs around $40,000; that's $840 million and $1,000 million. At below 20% gross profit margins, that's over $672 million and $800 million of production costs. By contrast, making music requires large amounts of labor to compose, perform, record, and master; making copies of music requires pennies per thousand copies and a capital start-up cost of a $400 PC you probably already own.

Given the above, copyright obviously requires protection. The impact of partial copyright compromise is non-obvious even to many marketing executives: illegal things like playing your radio loud enough for others to hear in public cause people to buy your song, even though these things also compromise your ability to charge money for performance in that context. Focusing too hard on protection of rights will lead to loss of the benefits conferred by those rights, just as if you protected the right to remain silent by prosecuting anyone who speaks without first raising his hand.

(By "rights" I of course mean "protections provided by laws which may be changed to expand, diminish, or extinguish their scope after appropriate legal process".)

Re:Google should just block Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

I've lost count, but over the years I've seen many people make exactly that argument toward various other countries. If I remember correctly, Google should have blocked:

- The UK, because they demanded porn and piracy filters
- Most of the EU (definitely France, Germany and Belgium), because they DARED to ask Google to pay their taxes... and also because of porn and piracy filters
- Russia, again, porn filters (notice the pattern)
- Turkey, because they demanded Google to block everything nasty (mostly porn)
- China, because they demanded Google to comply with their Great Firewall rules and be a good citizen and report dissidents (surprisingly, nothing about porn, but, unsurprisingly, Google folded and agreed to that, even though it betray every shred of principle they might have claimed to have)
- The USA, because of PRISM
- And now, Australia. Ostensibly because of IP laws (but I'm thinking people are just concerned about the porn).

I might have missed a few countries there, feel free to add them.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[sg_oneill]

Google has put up with worse I'm afraid.

Unfortunately the real power here lies with Rupert "Fucking" Murdoch. Much to the chargrin of News Corps minority shareholders, the Australian newspaper doesn't make a profit and serves as nothing more than a funnel to inject the sort of bad ideas that have turned american politics into the garbage fire it is, into australian politics too. And if he doesn't like it, the conservatives will bow, and do as the master commands.

I wish the old vampire would just have a coronary and leave democracy alone.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[deck]

(Sarcasm)
I think the copyright holders of the world need to lobby to have all people wear a system whereby they can ascertain what an individual has heard or seen and send them and the source a bill for hearing or seeing the copyrighted work. I think that all music, all sounds, all books, all poems, and all physical items should be put under eternal copyright by someone (in the entertainment or publishing industry) so that even seeing a country side scene can put a person in jeopardy of copyright infringement.
(Sarcasm off)

Unfortunately I don't think I am far off the mark of a lot of people who think that everything should be "owned" (and by them).

Re:Google should just block Australia

[spire3661]

I think you mean the web. The Internet without the web is still supremely useful.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[Falconhell]

Yeh the OZ is just a joke, a place where geriatric right wing nut jobs feel comfortable.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

Copyright is valid. Making a car requires an enormous capital investment for equipment, plus a ton of labor per-vehicle; the engineering expense to design that car is millions of dollars, and the production of that car is enormous. The Chevrolet Volt sold 21,000 units in 2012 and 25,000 in 2013, at MSRPs around $40,000; that's $840 million and $1,000 million. At below 20% gross profit margins, that's over $672 million and $800 million of production costs. By contrast, making music requires large amounts of labor to compose, perform, record, and master; making copies of music requires pennies per thousand copies and a capital start-up cost of a $400 PC you probably already own.

Given the above, copyright obviously requires protection.

It requires protection if we're to promote the commercial production of music over the rights of people to use their own property as they choose. Without this assumption, copyright is invalid and should be abolished. I for one would not sacrifice essential liberty for a little, questionable entertainment.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

a million times this.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[rtb61]

So what exactly are those idiots proposing at News Corpse, do what we will say, or we will, what exactly, get every one to vote Labour when Labour already are at war with News Corpse. Reality is Malcolm Turnbull can pretty much tell News Corpse to go fuck itself because News Corpse has now where else to go. The whole thing is laughable. So do not do it or else we will attack you an then what the opposition will do it anyhow and laugh whilst they are doing it. It's like the empty threat of the year. For google to get their way, they will have to sweeten the pot with a major data centre and do think laws will not change to force it anyone. Zero data being off shored will become a legal requirement in the end.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

Mmmmm ... removing the rights holders from ANY search results would impact their business dramatically.

There are businesses and business groups in Oz that are fighting tooth and nail to preserve their outdated, pre-Internet, business models in the face of overwhelming consumer and client desire to transition to what is available in other countries (eg. the US). What they want is a 1950's or 6O's distribution network, with all the geo-sequestration and staggered release of content that happened in the past, with a large amount of overseas content NEVER being released in Oz (presumably becaus eit would be too good for us), with inflated 2040 prices, when they want, where they want, how they want, to whom they want to sell it to, and for the taxpayer to pay to enforce their outdated contracts.

Understandable ... a few Australians are a bit miffed about that.

Sadly, we have the best politicians that money can by (and they can be bought for really bargain basement prices), and they are firmly in the corner of our Australian parasites and rent seekers.

Re: Google should just block Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck are you talking about?

This is about Google being made liable for listings on the internet.

We think google should block us Australians so that the laws that hold them liable for listing other people's shit on the internet won't affect them, since they aren't doing it in Australia.

Also to teach our dumbass politicians how stupid they are.

Re:Google should just block Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

So what exactly are those idiots proposing at News Corpse, do what we will say, or we will, what exactly, get every one to vote Labour [sic]

Murdoch backed Whitlam in 1972 and turned strongly against him in 1975. He back Hawke in 1983, Howard in 1996, gave admittedly only muted support to Rudd in 2007 and undisguised support for Abbott in 2013. It's is true, that News has failed to unseat sitting PMs on a number of occasions despite their best efforts, including Gillard spectacularly (and by a hair's breath) in 2010, Keating in "the sweetest victory of all" election ('93) and Whitlam in 1974. However, every change of Federal Government in Australia for the past 45 years has gone the way Murdoch wanted. If it is in his interests he will gladly install a Labor government.

So yes, that is precisely the threat.

wmd on credit cabals losing favor

[Anonymous Coward]

the wmd factories could be converted to solar powered appliance production & community service facilities... that's the spirit...

Google is not a monopoly

[mad7777]

I've been using other search engines, and the results are pretty much just as good. I'm sure the good people at Google are well aware that they need to watch their back.

Competition

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazing what a phone call from Rupert Murdoch will do.

Australia?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone knows Australia is a hoax. stop lying.

Well it's either because...

[Anonymous Coward]

...a) the Australian Government is 'upset' with Google's non payment of taxes through profit shifting
or b) Rupert Murdoch said "no" for some reason.

Re:Google is assumed to be a unversal good...

[davecb]

If Google.au is removed, it's quite true that no-one will notice.

If, on the other hand, Google stops indexing businesses in Australia, then no-one will notice... except the businesses in Australia, notably newspapers, who really want to be indexed.

Who needs who more?

[frank_adrian314159]

I'd have Google and Facebook block users from Aussie-land with a simple page saying, "Due to actions of the Australian government, we are no longer offering service to users from your country. Contact your govermental representatives to comment."

I'd give the issue about five days to be cleared.

What did you expect?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, this country is completely owned by monopolies and oligopolies. Is anyone really surprised? Woolworths/Coles, the Big Four banks, Fairfax/News Corp media, BHP/RIO own Australia. If it doesn't support them it doesn't get supported.

What the actual fuck

[Anonymous Coward]

Lobbying is an American thing, here in OZ it is called bribery. How the fuck is this possible?

PMs support garenteed its death

[Wizarth]

Our PM is so useless, that him publically supporting it was probably what killed it. The opposition would oppose it on principle, and the factions inside his party would oppose anything he does that they haven't told him explicitly to do.

Useless government

[Anonymous Coward]

There can be little doubt that intense lobbying from entertainment industry groups played their part, with a series of articles published in News Corp-owned The Australian piling on the pressure in favor of rightsholders.

The current government don't know how to do anything until their corporate owners tell them. Murdoch-owned Newscorp had to tell them how to ruin our fibre based NBN - that's working just the way they want too - poorly.