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Aussie gov't report on DRM: Don't let it override public rights! A special Australian committee on copyright and DRM has published its findings, and has recommended a drastic scaling-back of the protections given to DRM in most countries. Australia was arm-twisted into accepting legal protection for DRM in its free trade agreement with the USA. The US version of this legal protection has been abused to stop people from making compatible software, backups, from time- and format-shifting, and allowing the enforcement of terms that are based on the idea of screwing you, not protecting copyright law as written. The Aussies had a special, distinguished panel review the way that Australia should meet its obligations, and they've come back with a 186-page report full of recommendations for exceptions to the protections DRMs get. This is tantamount to a denunciation of the status quo in Europe, the USA and other places with DRM protection in place, a brave and thoroughgoing statement of the risks to the public interest that arise when you say to someone that it's illegal to break a lock, even if you've got a right to whatever it's protecting. Among the recommendations are the right for Parliament to break DRM to get access to work, the right to break DRM for tinkerers, reverse engineers, backers-up, and getting rid of rootkits and other DRMs that are installed without your knowledge and permission.
Laws will be changed allowing people to legally record music from CDs to their iPods and other digital music players.The federal government is reportedly proposing a raft of changes to the copyright laws to combat music piracy. Taping TV and radio programs and using copyright material for parody or satire will also be legalised as part of the reforms, The Sunday Telegraph reports. The changes are to be announced today by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.The key changes relate to the recording of copyright material from CDs, audio tapes or vinyl records onto an MP3 player or home computer.
Transferrring music from CDS onto iPods and other MP3 players will no longer be illegal after federal cabinet agreed to make sweeping changes to copyright laws.But beware the trap of downloading from the internet. The Government will increase surveillance and fines on internet piracy in a package to be announced by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock today.Once the new laws are passed, "format shifting" of music, newspapers and books from personal collections onto MP3 players will become legal. The new laws will also make it legal for people to tape television and radio programs for playback later, a practice currently prohibited although millions of people regularly do it.Police will be able to issue on-the-spot fines and access and recover profits made by copyright pirates. Courts will be given powers to award larger damages payouts against internet pirates. Civil infringement proceedings will apply to copyright pirates who make electronic reproductions or copies of copyright material.In a win for recording artists, the new package will include the removal of the legislative 1 per cent cap on copyright licence fees paid by radio broadcasters for playing recordings.The Government is bracing for a stoush with commercial radio stations over the removal of the cap, which has been in place since 1968.But Mr Ruddock believes the archaic provision was established to protect radio broadcasters who were facing a difficult economic environment at the time.
