1 post tagged “copyright”

So it seems that our Australian government is trying to rush some pretty damn imposing copyright legislation through.

Take a listen to:
http://www.ip.qut.edu.au/materials/20061122-BrianFitzgerald_PeterCoroneos-64.mp3

to quote the SMH:

Under these proposed new laws it will be illegal - for instance - to lend a video copy of a TV show you have made to your family or friends if you have already watched that copy.

And those same proposed laws will required you to delete that program once you've watched it once.

I personally love:

Can I give a recording I have made to a friend

No. A recording is for the personal use of the person who made it. You can invite a friend over to watch or listen to your recording but you can't lend or give it to a friend to take home with them.

It really seems like the government heard that something needed to be done, but then went to the content companies for advice on solutions. Or just for money. Whats really disturbing is the way this legislation is rushing through. The Australian part of the blogosphere does not have the influence that the American portion does, and if the traditional media companies (which have the potential to control our media uptake a lot more with these laws) decided not to report about it, and I've heard very little about it in the mainline press, how are non tech savy Australians surposed to understand how this will affect them. They wont know anything has changed until a few years from now when  they'll find that they're kids dvd of the latest pixar film will only play in the first dvd player it was used on, or that the show they recorded in the lounge room will cost them exrea to be able to play it back in the bedroom.

If you can, make a stink about this. Write to a member of parliment, or better yet call them. Try and get the attention of media houses with more open thinking, like the abc, and get them to report on it.

Thikn its not a big deal? The collective at Digg seems to think that singing out loud may be illeagle under the new laws. Google is worried too.