Australians soon able to legally record television and rip MP3s Posted by Dan Bell on 29 December 2005 - 01:30 - Source: Entertainment News RTV71 used our news submit to tell us about this great news for our friends down under! Attorney General Philip Ruddock, is making some changes to copyright laws by adding fair use loopholes that will allow Aussies to record television shows or rip their Cd's to their MP3 players legally.The only downside is whether a levy will be placed on blank Cd's and MP3 players, as compensation to artists for the resulting lost revenue due to these legal moves. MILLIONS of Australians who tape TV shows and copy CDs will soon get the right to do it with a clear conscience.The Federal Government will next year legalise 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. In light of all the negative news we are reading of late, that seem to have the purpose of undermining fair use rights, this is nice to see no matter where in the world it is. Good deal. http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/12859
Video crooks come in from the cold From: By Nick Butterly December 28, 2005 MILLIONS of Australians who tape TV shows and copy CDs will soon get the right to do it with a clear conscience. The Federal Government will next year legalise 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. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has flagged tidying up copyright laws by adding fair-use loopholes that will clear the way for private citizens to copy the content without breaking the law. But yet to be decided is whether a levy will be slapped on the store price of blank CDs and MP3 players, such as iPods, to compensate artists for the revenue they stand to lose under the new laws. Though the practice is widespread, it remains illegal to convert a CD to MP3 format for playing on an iPod. There are more than 100,000 Australian iPod owners, all of whom have broken the law by uploading music. Advertisement: It is also against the law to tape a television program. A spokeswoman for Mr Ruddock said the Government was close to completing draft laws that would allow people to copy their CDs on to iPods and tape television programs. Mr Ruddock foreshadowed the changes this month. He said there needed to be a balance between the rights of copyright owners and the interests of users. "We should have copyright laws that are more targeted at the real problem," Mr Ruddock said. "We should not treat everyday Australians who want to use technology to enjoy copyright material they have obtained legally as infringers where this does not cause harm to our copyright industries." The Attorney-General said he was likely to add exceptions to current laws to recognise "everyday forms of private copying that do not harm copyright owners". In Canada, where similar laws have been introduced, a fee was levied on blank CD and iPod unit sales to compensate copyright owners with up to an extra $32 being placed on the store price of individual machines. Mr Ruddock's spokeswoman said a similar system had been discussed for Australia, but was unlikely to be introduced. The Australian Federal Police does not pursue people who have taped TV shows or transferred songs to their iPods from CDs. However, a spokeswoman said all referrals were acted on. http://entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,17673408-10431,00.html
Welcome to 1984, Australia p2p news view / p2pnet: As a Canadian, I feel a sort of kinsmanship, a sort of connection if you will, with the people from the land down under, the land of Steve Irwin and baby-eating dingos. Both of our respective countries are misunderstood due to the actions of a certain few famous people originating from said country. Australia has their Paul Hogan & Yahoo Serious. Canada has Bryan Adams and Celine Dion. Both our countries are far worse because of these "select" few and have to put up with the stereotypes generated by these fine examples of what our countries have to offer. It's because of this close bond between myself and all you Aussies that I warmly welcome you and your government into 1984. Hopefully, your government will soon discover the internet and computers too! Because soon it will be legal for Australians to video-tape TV shows or copy their CDs to their mp3 players without being cast off as criminals, as communists who hate the Entertainment Industry. Australia had been leading the way in forcing the public to bend over whenever buying a CD or movie. You see, in Australia, you can't legally copy music from a CD you own to an mp3 player you own. Apparently, the 100,000 Aussies who own an iPod (and the hundreds of thousands that own iPod wannabes) are all vile henchmen who'd like nothing better than to plunge the country back into its days as a prison island for England's castaways. Of course, the entertainment industry couldn't be any happier about this. I'm guessing this is RIAA President Carry Sherman's wet dream. True, 1984 isn't when we Canuckistanians were granted fair use rights. Still, I say 1984 because that was when the landslide Sony Betamax case was decided in America with the judges deciding that we consumers can be trusted, that consumers aren't all uncouth heathans trying to steal away Steve Guttenberg's very livelyhood. No, consumers simply wanted to take advantage of new technology such as video tape recorders to let them record television shows that they weren't at home to watch. They also wanted their money for nothing and their chicks for free, but that's another story. The movie industry was hell-bent on claiming that the VCR would destroy the industy. Thankfully for them, too, the judges decided against them. Imagine what would have happened to the rental industry if VCRs hadn't become as popular as they are now/. And they wouldn't have were it not for the convenience they offered! "We should not treat everyday Australians who want to use technology to enjoy copyright material they have obtained legally as infringers where this does not cause harm to our copyright industries," Aussie Attorney-General Philip Ruddock. So my Aussie friends, welcome! Grab a beer, eh, and take a seat in the igloo while I put another shrimp on the 'barbie. http://p2pnet.net/story/7441
CRIA pre-election copyright ploy 'Nobody's pretending ...' p2p news / p2pnet: With Canada's latest election only 24 days away, the Big Four Organized Music cartel's CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America) wants voters to be thinking about spurious copyright issues. "Nobody's pretending this is on par with health care or any of the other major issues," the Canadian Press has CRIA front man Graham Henderson saying, "but at some point somebody's got to talk about culture. We have a lawless environment." However, that's exactly what he is pretending, and his remarks are particularly interesting given that his employer, the CRIA, is owned by the Big Four, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal, Warner Music and EMI, none of whom have a major presence in Canada, and all of whom are currently being eyed by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer for possible investigation over price fixing. As Michael Geist puts it, the new 'study' "follows the fall release in which it laughably sought to link file sharing with a wide assortment of evils including shoplifting and cheating on exams." The Big Four Organized Music family members have already been found guilty of bribery and other charges, and Sony BMG is still trying to ride out the continuing rootkit disaster under which it was caught red-handed trying to hide dangerous DRM spyware in the computers of people buying some of its music CDs. Now, with the January election looming, the labels are once again using the Canadian media to push their anti-p2p, anti-file sharing message. And once again, they've decided a 'study' is the best way to generate headlines. Yet Another CRIA Sponsored Poll By Michael Geist - www.michaelgeist.ca CRIA continues its copyright lobbying today by releasing yet another poll that it claims reveals Canadians' attitudes on copyright law. This follows the fall release in which it laughably sought to link file sharing with a wide assortment of evils including shoplifting and cheating on exams. The poll makes an assortment of claims: * 91 percent of Canadians believe that artists should be protected by copyright * 55 percent view copyright as an election issue * 68 percent want stronger copyright laws * 32 percent would vote for a party pledging to establish stronger copyright laws (17 percent would not and it would not make a difference to 44 percent) A few brief comments on this CRIA-sponsored research. Two of the results come as little surprise. First, that 91 percent believe that artists should be protected by copyright makes sense since just about everyone rightly concludes that copyright has a role to play in protecting creativity. Copyright protection per se is not the issue - artists already have copyright protection for their work and no party is calling for the elimination of copyright (nor do I know of many people on either side that want to see copyright eliminated). Second, it is good to hear that that 55 percent want to hear from the parties on copyright since that is consistent with the views of people on all sides of the copyright debate (I' ve written two pieces on the subject). The more interesting (or headline grabbing) data will involve the views on stronger copyright laws. The data here illustrates why it is difficult to get parties to turn their attention to copyright, since notwithstanding CRIA's emphasis on the 32 percent who say they would vote for parties who favour stronger copyright laws, nearly half of the those polled say it makes no difference, while almost one in five see it as a negative. What is most important about this poll, however, is what it doesn't ask. What percentage of Canadians would say that the law should protect consumers against the secret installation of copy protection programs that threaten the security on their computer? What percentage of Canadians would say they should be entitled to view a store-bought DVD in their homes regardless of where it is purchased? What percentage of Canadians would say that they should be entitled to make a copy of their CDs to listen to on their iPod? What percentage of Canadians are aware of the $140 million that has been collected under the private copying system, the majority of which goes to Canadian artists? These are the sorts of questions that must be asked for this poll to have any real credibility since my guess is that the numbers would be even higher. Canadians are deeply troubled by issues such as the Sony Rootkit, DVD regional coding, and the shortcomings of the private copying system and copyright policy must take these issues into account. Given these omissions, the poll doesn' t really tell us very much about copyright policy. However, alongside the hosting of a major fundraiser for Liberal MP Sam Bulte, it does confirm that CRIA and its president Graham Henderson plan to use this election campaign to lay the groundwork for a major copyright reform push in 2006. [Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca.] http://p2pnet.net/story/7440
Give it a rest, doggybot. Very interesting ireland, I had no idea that converting a CD to mp3 format is/was illegal in Australia. What I would like to know is do Aussie puters come with a CD/DVD rewriter and a program like WMP10 that [bold]easily allows[/bold] people to convert their cd's to mp3? If so, then there is a huge case of hypocrisy....don't sell it if we can't use it!!! So up until this shake up in the law, and before iTunes was introduced in Australia, how did Australians legally listen to digital music on the move? Were iPods illegal? LMAO at the state of digital media distribution and management laws!
Doggy_Bot this is not my thread, it was posted for info for all.... put it this way its every bodys thread,who wants to post here even if its 4x in a row..
doggy_bot, knock it off! ireland has more useful posts than all of your posts & some of yours have been pretty bad.
@ireland, as an Aussie myself I found this news quite interesting and informative. BTW the dingo only ate 1 baby and the croc almost ate baby bob(steve Irwins baby). Now my kids are going to want mp3 players.
