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Home recording of DVD movies and of music to iPod or MP3 players might be made legal under a Federal Government review.The explosion in recording from the internet and the use of digitised music has forced the Government to consider American-style "fair use" laws on copyright.
so, australia is saying relax the laws to be more like american laws... while america is making the laws stronger to be more like australian laws? lol
Code to solve net copyright conflictKaren DearneMAY 24, 2005 THE Internet Industry Association is hoping a copyright code of practice will get internet service providers off the hook over alleged infringements of laws introduced under the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement in January.
US votes to outlaw spywareAndy Sullivan in WashingtonMAY 24, 2005 THE US House of Representatives has voted to establish new penalties for purveyors of internet "spyware" that disables users' computers and secretly monitors their activities.By overwhelming majorities, the House passed two bills that stiffen jail sentences and establish multimillion-dollar fines for those who use secret surveillance programs to steal credit-card numbers, sell software or commit other crimes.
The real issue ?So what is the allegation? The minor is alleged to have linked to the MP3 WMA Land site. He’s also alleged to have some CDRs lying around his house when the family home was raided. Some of them may have had some sound recordings on them. Or maybe not …MP3 WMA Land may have been involved in illegal activity. Even if the website conducted illegal operations, should this minor be tried for aiding and abetting in these operations? Did he commence the operations of the MP3 WMA Land website? Did he control the website’s operations? Did he profit from the website’s operations? Was he even aware that the website’s operations could be classed as illegal? Even if the minor did some or all of things which are the subject of these proceedings, why is he being prosecuted? Wouldn’t his actions simply have made him one of many? How many other members of the public have burnt CDs, and are they being prosecuted? Is this minor simply a preferable target compared to other individuals because he lacks financial resources, and is less likely to be able to afford the best legal representation available?So many questions … so little response.
The Internet Industry Association (IIA) -- whose board includes representation from heavyweights such as Yahoo, Optus, Telstra and ninemsn -- issued the request in an e-mail which also revealed that "a number of substantial members" of the association were assessing the impact of the litigation on their operations. Record labels have accused Perth-based Swiftel of copyright infringement in an action which alleges the ISP's employees and customers created a BitTorrent file-sharing hub to host thousands of pirated sound and video recordings. IIA chief executive officer Peter Coroneos said in the e-mail those members "with potential liabilities" should "consider their position should Swiftel lose this case". However, in a subsequent interview with ZDNet Australia , Coroneos said the contributions alluded to in the e-mail would not be financial, but "expressions of support". Pressed for examples, he cited access to information, technical advice and other resources that may help their case.
I think the fact that swiftel employees helped with the tracker, means that they have no chance of winning this I believe that to be the facts here and therefore its a waste of time to complain, they know the law.
It took almost two years but major record labels in Australia have finally won a legal battle against a Queensland man and his Internet Service Provider for alleged music piracy. Stephen Cooper, operator of a Web site called MP3s4free.net, was found guilty of copyright infringement by Federal Court Justice Brian Tamberlin. Although Cooper didn't host pirated recordings per se, the court found he breached the law by creating hyperlinks to sites that had infringing sound recordings. This is the first such judgement against hyperlinking in Australia
A couple from the NSW Central Coast has been fined $75,000 over trademark and copyright infringements in Wyong Local Court for selling illegal copies of DVDs in their local community.Police charged Allan and Lisa Anne Glandian of Toukley with the offences after seizing 494 illegally copied DVDs and disk duplication equipment from the couple's home in October last year. The court heard that the pair imported hundreds of unauthorised copies of DVDs from Malaysia and sold them through an informal network of friends and acquaintances.
Mr Forsyth, of Dirt Cheap CDs, says he can make a profit on selling the latest CD album releases for $15. He says he can undercut bigger retailers by $10 or more on the same product. He says many back catalogue CD albums selling for $10 were supplied here by big multinational companies. Mr Forsyth says he can sell the latest album releases for $15 because he does good deals by importing big volumes from overseas. He and other music retailers are the beneficiaries of the Federal Government lifting import restrictions. The big record companies had enjoyed exclusive import rights on CDs until the Government allowed so called parallel importing in 1998. The Government argued greater competition, as a result of parallel importing, would bring down CD prices. The music industry vehemently opposed deregulation, claiming it would deter record companies from investing in local talent when cheap and nasty overseas product was flooding the Australian market.
Federal police raided a Perth address this morning as part of what US authorities say is their largest global sweep against organised crime online.An AFP spokesman said police were examining computer equipment and documents seized at the property in Mount Pleasant, in Perth's southern suburbs.No-one has been arrested.
Some of you may like or dislike iTunes, but few Australians have ever experienced iTunes despite the booming sales of iPods. This is because despite all of the hype, hysteria and promise, the iTunes download site continues to be unavailable to most Australian consumers. Despite the self- proclaimed importance of the Australian recording industry, Australia is not one of the first 19 countries to have an iTunes operation. Aside from countries like the US and UK, Australia has been beaten to the service by countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. Australian consumers can’t even access the US iTunes site without a US-issued credit card. In effect Australian consumers have been locked out of iTunes.It appears that the worldwide recording industry has artificially divided the world up into different markets so they can regulate new music releases and price downloads differently in each market, thereby maximising profits in each market. It sounds a lot like the ill-fated DVD zoning which as I recall cleverly zoned Australian DVDs as Zone 4, along with South America!
THE movie industry may consider prosecuting internet users who download pirated copies of Hollywood blockbusters, warning it will take pirates to court if consumers "migrate to illegal downloads en masse".The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft is already warning that organised crime is using popular peer-to-peer networks and pirate websites to download illegally copied movies and burn them to DVD, selling them in markets. AFACT executive director Adrianne Pecotic said the movie industry would continue with education campaigns aimed at convincing consumers piracy was wrong, but it would consider prosecutions if those campaigns were not successful
APC understands that ARIA is considering more criminal cases than civil cases in a bid to cut legal costs.Criminal cases would allow ARIA stakeholders to leverage police prosecutors rather than long term legal partners Gilbert & Tobin.Civil cases would still be run, but a new internal MIPI structure would bring the bulk of investigations in-house rather than outsourced. ARIA is understood to be considering a proposal that would see big-ticket civil cases tendered to a range of top law firms.
No comment was forthcoming from ARIA about whether perceived cost blowouts had led to a rethink of its litigation strategy for piracy enforcement. “It’s fair to say MIPI’s in a state of flux since I’ve just resigned, so no, there’s no big cases on the horizon,” Kerin said.
Australia might legalize recording of television shows for personal useAfter France, it looks like Australia would become the next nation aiming to make lives of regular citizens easier going against the television and media companies. France government is trying to legalize p2p file sharing if the web users are ready to pay a fix monthly royalty charge for doing so. Australian government is also planning something in the same direction and plans to make it legal for the people to record television program for personal use.The Federal Government is planning to overturn a ban which limits such activities which has somewhat made most of their population criminals in the eye of the law. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has supported the cause and plans to add fair-use loopholes that will clear the way for private citizens to copy the content without breaking the law.
Wireless ISPs in Australia have admitted to throttling peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic on their networks.Eric Hamilton, Unwired's chief technical officer, told The Australian that its policy, which has been in force for a number of months already, was aimed at giving normal users priority speeds over those who would otherwise bog down the network.Some users on Unwired have recently reported speed and congestion issues in peak times, which could have led Unwired to this decision. But Unwired claims it has capacity for 70,000 customers on its network, but has less than 40,000 currently connected. Unwired chairman Steve Cosser said last year that "wireless broadband today is a viable alternative to ADSL and cable", but very few ADSL providers limit speeds on P2P applications.But how does this affect ISPs that buy Unwired bandwidth wholesale? Internode MD Simon Hackett told Whirlpool that although "the service Internode sells has no port/service type based prioritisation in it", he couldn't be sure "where the reported prioritisation of traffic occurs in the Unwired network." "So it's possible that Unwired apply prioritisation to all customer traffic", he said.
Record companies are being given the power to veto the design of new digital communication technologies, say advocates of online civil liberties.The claim, by Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), comes on the eve of an appeal against a landmark ruling last year against providers of the internet file-sharing software Kazaa.Kazaa is one of a number of free software packages that allow people to swap files over the internet.On Monday 20 February, the providers of Kazaa will appeal against this decision. And the EFA, with the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties and the Australian Consumers' Association, is applying to take part in the appeal.EFA is also worried that this Kazaa ruling could one day lead to email providers inappropriately monitoring, filtering or blocking messages.
Unwired, which markets its portable service to students, confirmed that it limited peer-to-peer traffic on some parts of its network to smooth the flow of data that it classes as real-time. Two iBurst resellers, Independent Service Providers and BigAir, have defended the practice of prioritising some forms of internet traffic. Australia's top three broadband providers, Telstra, Optus and iiNet say they don't differentiate between peer-to-peer and other forms of internet traffic. "Telstra does not shape file sharing traffic," a Telstra spokesman says. The only shaping Telstra does is to accounts that have gone over 10GB in a month, he says. IiNet managing director Michael Malone said internet providers needed to ensure their networks were free of congestion, rather than differentiate between types of traffic. IBurst and Unwired were trying to reduce their bandwidth bills, he said. Peer-to-peer use was targeted because it was likely to involve "dodgy" activity, he said. "From our point of view, if you tell a customer you're getting 2GB of downloads during the month, that's what we need to supply," he said. Optus said it had the technical means to prioritise traffic on its network but that it would only use the technology in emergencies or "some other unforeseeable circumstance". IBurst reseller Pacific Internet said fixed-line internet pricing plans were more appropriate than wireless plans for peer-to-peer users.
