Australian Media 'Crooks' to Come in from the Cold 273
pagefault writes "News.com is reporting that millions of Australians who tape TV shows and copy CDs will soon get the right to do it with a clear conscience. From the article: 'The Federal Government will next year legalize the video recording of television shows for personal use, and the transfer of songs from CDs to MP3 players, in a bid to overturn a ban which has made criminals of much of the population."
Everyone's a criminal! (Score:4, Insightful)
Ethics != Law (Score:1, Insightful)
Moral vs Legal (Score:5, Insightful)
Again brainwashing in action to make what's moral and what's legal the same thing.
If they outlaw living should I have bad conscience for being alive?
Re:Tax? What tax? (Score:3, Insightful)
Immorality knows no dollar signs. If you multiply those 18 or 20 cents by millions of blank CDs and DVDs, you'll see that millions of dollars are being stolen from your fellow citizens and funneled to private interests under the assumption that each and every one of you are criminals. That's money that can be put to better use among the *productive* members of the economy. Moreover, those levies are going to an organization that represents only a small minority of the overall pool of musical talent in the country.
Re:Advertising (Score:2, Insightful)
Is it really possible for the quality of commercial prime time TV in Australia to sink lower?
Re:Mass civil disobedience wins? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm an Australian and I know of a crap load of police officers who share music (burned CD's, mp3's, software) amongst each other, even doing it AT WORK.
Using the law to crack down on music file sharers in Australia is NOT about stopping the sharing. It is about extracting money from people or entities which have deep pockets. The fact that they go after ISP's and companies, instead of the file sharing users, is evidence of this.
A top Australian Lawyer or Barrister makes more in a day, than the typical 15 year old has in the worth of the entirety of his assets. The ISP those teens use on the other hand, have millions.
USA Is not much better (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Artists lose??? (Score:4, Insightful)
The truth is, this is RIAA math (not the RIAA, but same kind). Remember that 4 blank CDs may cost $2 or whatever, but their value is the $150 that a 4 disc box set might cost (because that is what you could pirate with it). Logic, as usual for these kind of groups, does not apply.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Stealing a loaf of bread... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because we don't send people to Australia for it doesn't make it not a crime. We don't send people to Australia for a lot of things these days.
Re:Everyone's a criminal! (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriouly, Australia looks like a really cool place, and most Australian folks I know are super nice people. I'm thinking of moving there someday. The "Australia founded by criminals" is just an interesting story that gets propagated because of its novelty, I don't think that people mean it as an insult. At least, I can assure you that my own opinion of Australia isn't tainted by the story.
After all, let's not forget that the United States was founded by a bunch of insurgents. Funny how our own opinions of insurgencies have changed...
Not criminals! (Score:4, Insightful)
Just to insert a little sanity here. In Australia, most copyright violations are prosecuted in the civil courts (exceptions include sale of couterfeit goos, called 'passing off'). It is only in corrupt countries where the media corporations can easily buy new laws that such things have fallen under criminal prosecution.
Let's not even begin to talk about the DCMA, the shiny new laws which make videotaping a movie in a theatre more heavily punished than several types of killing, or the perpetual copyright on Mickey Mouse or anything else that american corporations bother to pay supreme court justices for.
Won't be Long... (Score:3, Insightful)
because we all know that this is *exactly* what the RIAA wants here Stateside, right? To make you buy the CD, buy the MP3, and then buy it again when the license expires.
Much like America (Score:3, Insightful)
That's much like America... from King George's point of view, America is a country founded by "terrorists". We practically *invented* guerilla warfare, for christ's sake.
It's all a matter of perspective. My British friends celebrate July Fourth as "Good Riddance Day".
Re: Stealing a loaf of bread... (Score:2, Insightful)
Good Thing/Bad Thing (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, it is a pleasant surprise to see a government actually taking a look at reality, and adjusting it's laws thusly, rather than trying to do it the other way around.
But what about the 'FREE trade agreement'? (Score:4, Insightful)
We also did some other stupid things to ensure 'justice' prevailed, including telling judges how to do their job by insisting that they consider the retail value of copies even if that is not realised (ie if your 10y/o son downloads the latest Disney tripe, selling at the time for AUD50 as a DVD, and it sits in [insert your favourite P2P software here] for 6 months during which time 100,000 copies are made then you are to be tried for AUD5,000,000 of piracy despite having nothing to show for it but an AUD10,000 Telstra bill).
There I go confusing the issues again... downloading from P2P networks IS theft (even in a world where CD/DVD prices are extortionate); making the most of your intellectual property license (ie CD/DVD purchase) by transforming the work into more convenient formats is not.
Re:Any Enforcement? (Score:2, Insightful)
I remember a few months back a Christian school here in Sydney was reported in the media for their students voluntarily giving up all their 'burned' CDs and such because they'd been taught copyright infringement was immoral. They even pinned their CD-Rs to a wall or something like that to show that they were serious. However I bet that if I walked into any one of their houses their parents would still have one or more VCRs, would have had a VCR continuosly for many, many years and over that time all members of the family would have committed vastly more acts of copyright infringements by taping TV shows and fast-forwarding the ads than anything they did on their iPods or CD-Burners.
Quick way to overturn out-of-date law? (Score:2, Insightful)
Possibly the fastest way to show how out-of-date the copyright laws are in a country like Australia or New Zealand (where it is technically illegal to format-shift or record shows or whatever) is to sue someone on behalf of the Music Industry as a "friend".
Make a public warning ahead of the actual action, publically stating that some unnamed poor sod will be legally sued into oblivion, and then follow through with the threat (and any subsequent appeals.
Of course, finding a person to do this and take all the flak for this type of action would be near impossible.
The mind boggles at how the music industry would react to having a "friend" sue all the normal users of their music...
Re:Artists lose??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Reminds me of a good joke (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reminds me of a good joke (Score:3, Insightful)
No one who tells the joke does it as a sign of respect, it's a sneering putdown. Incidentally, my family came over in the Gold Rush, I don't have any convicts in my family tree that I know of, though if I did I wouldn't be ashamed, neither would I be proud. Are American blacks proud of their "slave history"? Would you joke with then (assuming you're not black) asking where their shackles are? Or ask a Jew to show his Auschwitz tattoo? Actually, I wouldn't be so sensitive if this crap didn't come up every time Australia is mentioned here. Continual baiting wears you down.
Artists paid from blank media levies - how? (Score:2, Insightful)
I mean in a practical sense, is there a form that you fill in to state that you are the copyright holder for a particular work, and then they hand over a bit of cash as your cut of the pool? Could I write and record a song, release it under my own label, then make a claim for blank media compensation? Or would I have to be a "recognised" popular artist, or signed to a big record label before the compensation kicks in? I'm genuinely curious to know how the money raised by these levies gets distributed.