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

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Love the blacksmith analogy below. Very nice :-)

She is right about the sillyness of sitting back to watch the
extradition of Australian's and the foolishness of a watertight DRM.
Reminds me of our efforts to legislate a ban on audio compact cassette
sales in the 1980's. Imagine back then if cars were raided for bootleg
tapes and any media-shifting vinyl-record pirates extradited overseas
(not that records could ever really be played in cars) ..

Regards Roland

On 24/01/2008, stephen at melbpc.org.au <stephen at melbpc.org.au> wrote:
> 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
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>


-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead