Pay Attention To .Au/.Us IP Trade Law 279
Rusty Russell writes "The recent US-Australia "Free" Trade Agreement Chapter 17 (IP) locks
Australia into our existing DMCA-style laws and extends them further:
banning "access control" circumvention, extending copyright,
guaranteeing penalties greater than actual damages for deliberate
copyright infringement, committing us to recognising patents "whether a
product or process, in all fields of technology", etc.
Linux Australia has produced
a draft position paper
(rough HTML
here), has a
how to help page,
and started
a petition.
Please help!
" Rusty's a great guy - he's got some good links on his own page, but please take the time to do what you can - if you are a Australian, take the time to *physically* write your MP. Floods of post are what will create action.
A small grammar note (Score:1, Informative)
Must we get black marker pens and write "your MP" all over bus shelters, park benches, toilet cubicles and any other surface that presents itself? I don't see how inciting vandalism is going to solve the problem.
Unless, of course, you mean "write to your MP", which is the correct form of this expression in Australian grammar.
Write to your MP here (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/mplist.htm [aph.gov.au]
Write a snailmail letter (don't email) to your local member [aec.gov.au] and protest this junk!
Re:Copyright has gotten out of control (Score:5, Informative)
" To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"
It says nothing about profits, it says that in exchange for promoting these things which we feel are valuable to society we will allow you to have controll of your works for a limited time.
Tasmania and Sen Brian Haradine (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Write to your MP here (Score:3, Informative)
E-Mail is just as valid as snail mail when sent a MP.
I urge you all to send e-mail, snail mail, black mail ;-). The more of us that protest about this, the more likley someone will listen.
BTW, if we can get Latham to say that he will remove the law if he is elected, Howard will again try to steel the limelight, and revoke the law before the up and comming federal election.
He has done with with everything else Latham has promised.
Third of Nine
so... are we already fucked up? (Score:2, Informative)
So that means that we are fucked up, and we can do nothing about it, right?
-copyright: life + 70
-encourage that circunvention of access control be criminally punished.
-recognize patents to anything, whether a product or process, in all fields of technology.
Re:Write to your MP here (Score:4, Informative)
However, the same attention, in this context, means that they generally forward it to the Minister responsible for that matter or, if they are the Minister responsible, they get their Department to answer it - or their political staff if it's a purely political matter (as opposed to a policy issue).
However, it still pays to write sometimes. If there's enough opposition from enough sources, it can make an imapct. Even better than writing letters would be to get the story picked up in various newspapers. Sadly enough, politicians are more worried about negative press on the front page of the Australian or the SMH than they are about negative comments in any number of letters sent to them.
Howard is against DMCA (Score:2, Informative)
Project Gutenberg of Australia (Score:2, Informative)
-m-
Who to contact (Score:1, Informative)
The Secretary
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties
R1-109
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
I got this info from my friendly local MP's staffer.
DVD zoning - what a joke... (Score:4, Informative)
Let me give you an example. I have a friend from mainland China (region 6), who studies here in Australia (region 4), who has a number of mutual Taiwanese friends (region 3), and is also studying Japanese (region 2). She bought a laptop last year, hoping to be able to watch DVDs on it, and was upset to find that 5 changes to the region would *lock* the hardware.
Whilst the ACCC supports region-free players, it can't mandate that player be manufactured this way, so most drives in laptops come with this ridiculous control imposed.
My friend essentially can't watch DVDs from different regions which are of cultural interest to her (good luck getting the latest Japanese CDs in Queensland!) Before you go saying, "well, most DVDs in Taiwan are cracked and don't have region restrictions", realise that that's not what I'm talking about. If we were to follow the 'rules' originally designed for DVDs, and laid out in the FTA, then my friend would have to buy 4 DVD drives, just so that she could watch DVDs from the different regions she's likely to be interested in, and come across.
So, when I patch my laptop drive (no patch was available for my friend's drive last time I checked) or rip the DVDs which I bought in Taiwan, I'm not doing so to 'circumvent copyright', I'm doing so for fair use, so I can watch the damned things!
In the modern world (particularly where Australia is situated) the idea of zones makes no sense. When I can hop on a plane and be in Taiwan in 8 hours, why should my player stop being able to play local DVDs, based on some completely arbitary regime?
It mightn't be a problem for citizens of the US - region 1 (sorry, but how typical!) covers: USA, Canada, U.S. Territories - this probably covers all the DVDs that US citizens would be interested in...
Submit to the FTA Senate Committee! (Score:4, Informative)
An Australian senate committee has been set up to inquire into the effects of the Free Trade Agreement. Submissions are open until April 30th. This is an opportunity to voice opposition to copyright extensions, and extensions to patents and 'DMCA issues' and be heard.
Submissions may be emailed to: FTA@aph.gov.au [mailto]
More details are on the web page: http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/freetrade_c tte/ [aph.gov.au]
These submissions do make a difference (I submitted to a previous inquiry on broadband access). This is an opportunity for us to put a point view forward. It is hard for an inquiry to draw a conclusion contrary to the majority of submissions (or for the government to ignore the results of such an inquiry).
In addition, results are usually published, forming a permanent record of opposition.
Also, check out the 'copyrightaustralia' yahoo group [yahoo.com] and an associated web page [daltons.info]. Regards
Re:Write to my MP (Score:2, Informative)
S/he would be very sensitive to a couple of thousand people in NSW adjusting their Senate preferences even a little bit. Perhaps indicate (if you are otherwise a coalition supporter) that you will preference them ahead of their opposition, but still move them further down your preference list - this way they can't simply disengage from dialog with you on the basis that "they wouldn't vote for the coalition anyway, so why bother?".
Re:What do you expect from a bunch of ex-cons (Score:1, Informative)
They were required for labour, because the Brits had outlawed slavery.
The practice of transportation didn't stop until the gold rushes made Australia a highly desirable place to be. After that, sending people here as punishment looked a bit goofy.
Your knowledge of history is lacking (Score:3, Informative)
Americans who like to mention that Australia was a penal colony seem to forget that Georgia was also a penal colony, and also don't seem to know that the number of Americans presently imprisoned in the US is far greater than the number of convicts that were ever shipped to Australia.
Re:Actually, it does... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Alternative (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Tasmania and Sen Brian Haradine (Score:3, Informative)
The LBP was more a political stunt (the electorate of Bass was a marginal seat, with 30-40 votes difference).
All that the LBP (Launceston Broadband Project) did was give you a discount of A$38.50 per month on your ADSL. It was great when it first started and the only provider was Telstra (A$80-90 for 3Gb) and we got it at A$55. (cheap at the time).
Then Telstra opened it up to resellers, but at shocking rates, so that the other resellers had to charge (say) $150 for 1Gb.
Then Telstra had to change their rates, so other providers could provider it more affordably, 3Gb for $70 or 10Gb for $100 were common prices. But the LBP changed their rules then... you had to use Telstra! (Since then, ADSL had got considerably more affordable, though Telstra has remained just as pathetic)
LBP also provided you with another ADSL account, which was like a private internet, just gave you access to local servers (file mirrors, and local events, such as concerts at the Uni etc were webcast). Unlimited traffic. Good concept.. but you had to disconnect from the internet to connect to the LBP. Completely fucking useless. Why not just provide the content on the internet itself, and make it free traffic for LBP users!
Not a single bit of internet filtering happened at all.
Anyway, not much to do with DMCA, but a rant nevertheless!
Re:Tasmania and Sen Brian Haradine (Score:3, Informative)
I get sick of listening to that tard on parliament broadcasts.
Re:Who to contact (Score:3, Informative)
There is also an ad-hoc Senate committee for the FTA. Its submissions period ends on the 30th. This is where you can make submissions now. Since it is the Senate that will ultimately decide whether the FTA requirements are implemented, that is where the submissions can have the greatest effect. The Joint Committee's report is most likely to be a rubber stamp.