[Year 12 IT Apps] Fwd: Opportunity to Influence Copyright Law

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Christian writes,

> Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:21:35 +1100
> From: "Christian McCrea" <christian at wolvesevolve.com>
> Subject: [fibreculture] Opportunity to Influence Copyright Law
> To: "list at fibreculture.org" <list at fibreculture.org>

For those interested in copyright issues in Australia:

<http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Copyright_IssuesandReviews_Copyi
ngphotosandfilmsforprivateuse>

 "The Government is reviewing the operation of two new copyright
exceptions that permit 'format shifting'. These exceptions are sections
47J and 110AA of the Copyright Act 1968n which permit photographs and
cinematograph films to be reproduced in a different format for private
use, subject to certain conditions."

It is more than likely that the record and film industries will be
pushing for the smallest possible definition of the clauses, as they are 
fairly strict at the moment but not quite truly draconian yet.

If anybody is interested in forming a working party to draft a response
from a loose collective of Australian media academics, this could be a
good opportunity to create a counter-measure to corporate interests. 

By citing the Swedish example, I would for example like to see a copyright
law that makes the private copying of film, music, text, photo and data
utterly legal no matter the circumstances - including the complete
legality of file-sharing - but allow whatever regulatory framework be
created on the selling or financial gain of those copies. Even a position
as extreme as that can be well articulated and will most certainly be
less farcical than the last word we had from the record and film
industries, who were attempting to force a levy on a/v cables.

I would also like to know if anybody else just feels as strongly about
this as I do. I think DRM goes beyond inconvenience and requires our
attention now before it takes root. A quote from Cory Doctorow is quite
poetic:

==========================================================================

For DRM to work, it has to be airtight. There can't be a single mistake.

It's like a balloon that pops with the first prick. That means that every
single product from every single vendor has to perfectly hide their keys,
perfectly implement their code. There can't be a single way to get into
the guts of the code to retrieve the cleartext or the keys while it's
playing back. All attackers need is a single mistake that they can use to
compromise the system.

There is no future in which bits will get harder to copy. Instead of
spending billions on technologies that attack paying customers, the
studios should be confronting that reality and figuring out how to make a
living in a world where copying will get easier and easier. They're like
blacksmiths meeting to figure out how to protect the horseshoe racket by
sabotaging railroads.

The railroad is coming. The tracks have been laid right through the
studio gates. It's time to get out of the horseshoe business.

==========================================================================

Instead of letting the joke play on and on, we could make a public
statement about the increasing silliness of the situation, where
Australians are being extradited to countries they have never visited for
copying data.

If anybody has any interest, we could start a discussion here and think
about what might need to be said - we have a month.

-Christian McCrea  
Swinburne University of Technology
--

Cheers, people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia