New laws proposed by the Howard Federal Government are set to make criminals of all iPod users.
Under the proposed plan, owners of music CD's are permitted to make one main copy and a second temporary copy of the copyrighted material. the secondary copy must be destroyed as soon as possible.
However, a CD 'ripped' by Apple's iTunes gives the user a copy of the music on both their computer and their iPod. The iPod owner has committed an indictable offence and risks five years in gaol or a $65,000 fine, or both.
Why does the Australian Federal Government continue drafting complex legislation to protect the interest of music publishers?
The answer is at least partially in the conditions of the "Free Trade Agreement" signed recently with the USA.
Such protection is rarely offered to local industries but the full weight of the law will be felt by Australian consumers to protect foreign big business.
The modern capitalist manta of "Compete or Die" has suddenly gone missing.
A quaint, old-fashioned solution would be for the music industry to provide a better product at a cheaper price.
1 comment:
Painfree,
I agree with you re protecting the interests of big business.
Except I don't know how else to protect the rights of musicians to reap their own financial reward from production of CDs (notwithstanding selling them for $10 at gigs and pocketing the cash).
Am similarly worried about the ongoing erosion of local content rules re radio/television.
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