Aussie Government Brings Back Piracy Talks 114
joshgnosis writes "The Australian Attorney-General's department is set to hold a closed-door meeting with internet service providers, film lobby groups and consumer groups over proposals to reduce piracy on Thursday. The meetings were at a stalemate after sources said that neither the ISPs or the film groups could see eye to eye on the best proposal but the department confirmed that the meetings will go ahead and will this time include consumer advocate groups, who were previously excluded from the meetings."
Re:What about the price of piracy enforcement (Score:5, Informative)
Dear Australian Government, (Score:4, Informative)
Please tell the content providers to stop attempting to control my life.
If there was a reasonably priced method of getting my movie, music and gaming fix online, but without any kind of DRM, I would happily use it.
Without the channel for getting these items legally at a reasonable price online, I am left only with stupidly over priced CD/DVD/BlueRay (why is a BR so much more expensive than a DVD when production cost is almost the same?), paying a pay tv provider to watch ads, or piracy.
Without the channel being free of DRM, I am left only with piracy. If I have some new or innovative way to watch or use my music and movies (they are mine, I bought them), then I have to break the law to do so.
For now, I wait for the movie on TV where I use a PVR with ad skipping to watch it. I only listen JJJ for my music (No ads!), or purchase from something like bandcamp. I only buy the humble bundles for games.
Content providers - you do not control me. You have lost. Wake up and change, or go bankrupt.
Re:What about the price of piracy enforcement (Score:5, Informative)
Calculate both the price of piracy enforcement and the price of piracy honestly, and see which costs more.
But that's the whole dirty, nasty trick. It's totally irrelevant which costs more. The point is that the costs of piracy enforcement are assumed by the tax payer, not the beneficiaries. The call for an Intellectual Property tax is in part to offset these costs.
You don't even need to calculate the benefits of a society with free access to all the works of man, where poor people have just as much access to culture as wealthy individuals.
For sound recordings, the 'works of man' start to become interesting with the advent of the vinyl sound recording (and not many people appreciate mono recordings, stereo was introduced later). Can you guess how many vinyl LPs have passed into the public domain?
Re:What about the price of piracy enforcement (Score:3, Informative)
2. Stealing physical property is "wrong" and usually "illegal".
3. Someone who invests in the creation of a product has some right to expect to be able to sell their works for a profit.
4. Massive downloading and viewing "pirated content" deprives the creators of some financial return.
5. This lost revenue could impact every aspect of the creative process--from salaries and jobs to taxes collected.
6. Governments, creators of content, and ultimately consumers have an interest in preventing mass piracy.
Pointless talk fest(thankfully) (Score:5, Informative)
The Greens won't go along with anything they decide, the opposition will support anything the government tries to do when hell freezes over, and so no one has the numbers to do anything. Copyright issues barely even get a blip on the radar here so the government isn't going to expend a whole lot of energy on it. They'll talk about it, try to make the content people feel they care and then do nothing much at all.
Piracy is mayhem at sea. (Score:3, Informative)
Can we *stop* calling unautorized use of information "piracy".
It rather by definition cedes criminal conduct when in many casesm however draconian laws are worded, proving criminality is way beyond plausible.
Most "piracy" is at a civil matter and usually of dubious merit, not murder, and theft on the high seas.
Call it what it usually is. Retrieving information without a license. Enjoying a film or song without having paid a corporation for the privilege.
-- TWZ
Re:So let me guess... (Score:4, Informative)
At least you had the option to buy... in the arse end of the world, (Australia according to most media types) I have had literally no choice but to Pirate some shows as they were unavailable by any other means. I literally went to 3 shop,s and tried online to buy the TV series Felicity before giving up and heading to The Pirate Bay, where I had all 4 series available within 3 days. This was a few years ago so the situation may have changed, but they did loose $100+ of sales that day.
BTW Legend of the Seeker was another series incredibly difficult to buy here for a long time.