Yes folks fresh from the land of luddites where innovation is put to death by fat cat monopoly business Cartels there's a new agenda to be forced on those in Australia.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004975.phpAs a result of a Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the U.S. that came into force in 2005, Australia is required to rewrite its current, relatively flexible, technological protection measure law by 1 January 2007, to make it more like the DMCA. A serious policy debate on how to frame a DRM law that does the least damage to consumers, scientific research, technological innovation and competition has been underway in Australia for several years. In February, a landmark Australian parliamentary committee report with consumer and technology-friendly recommendations for Australia’s rewrite process also pointed the way for other countries seeking a sensible response to the U.S. effort to export its unbalanced DMCA regime through recent free trade agreements. But many of the insights from that policy debate could be lost if the 219 page Copyright Amendment Bill, currently being fast-tracked through Australia’s Parliament, is passed. Apart from rewriting Australia’s current TPM law, the Bill would also make a number of sweeping changes to Australian copyright law, including introducing new criminal penalties.
The bill is currently before the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, which is due to issue its report on November 10. A public hearing will take place on November 7.
The deadline for making formal submissions has now closed, but concerned Australian citizens can still:
- Email or call your MP and express your concern that this complex bill is being rushed through the Parliamentary process without adequate opportunity for debate and an assessment of the impact of the proposed changes on Australian consumers, families, educators and the scientific community. You should ask your MP to stop the introduction of any new criminal provisions and any changes not directly required by the AUSFTA until there has been adequate time for informed public debate. (Only the trade agreement's DRM provisions are required to be in place by January 1, 2007).
- If your state's Senators are on the Senate Standing Committee for Legal and Constitutional Affairs, email or call them to express your concerns and ask them to record your views in the Committee's report, then reiterate your request to hold back new criminal provisions and other proposed changes that are not directly required by the free trade agreement until there's been an appropriate assessment of their impact.
The Committee members for this inquiry are Senators Payne (Chair), Ludwig, Crossin, Kirk, Trood, Brandis, Scullion and Bartlett.
Contact Details for all Senators are available at here.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/index.asp?sort=state.
Once again folks your help is required to stop anti democratic processes being used to pass flawed legislation sponsored by a world wide monopoly Cartel.
Dont end up paying for some fat a**holes in New York who sit on their backsides while you work hard to afford their over-priced product, only to be told you cant play or copy it for your own home use.
Protest now, while you still can and refuse to give the US a technical lead over your countries future technologies.
