Comments on: Copyright questions in Oz

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 04:08:37 +0000

“insidious global organisation focusses only on soft targets for maximum media effect and income”

Actually, on the “income” side of things, the soft targets are not good for recovering losses. It’s the big fish like Sharman which are good for that. The little fish will be detered with landmark cases which show all of them that they are within reach, are being watched and may have action taken against them.

Once the fright has set in on a large percentage of infringers, music lovers will move back towards weighing up the music they want against the money they have.

People should vote with their dollars and words. If you find some music you would like to buy is too expensive, don’t buy it and instead write a letter to the label informing them of your potential demand for that product but refusal to buy on account of the high price. If all you do is just not buy the CD (without writing), then they will not know the true height of the demand. Worse still, if you infringe on the copyright of that music, you show them the demand for it and the money they did not recover.

As long as people infringe the situation will not get better. Infringing and trying to apply rationale on the act is useless, because the fact is that it is illegal, the labels see it as that and are unlikely to listen to “reason” from people conducting illegal activities against them. It’s like holding them at ransom when they have the power.

People infringing via P2P have electricity bills, internet bills, often line rental bills, comparatively expensive computers, often CD or DVD burners plus the blank media which goes with them and often mp3 players. Yet they won’t buy audio CDs? Most of these things are luxuries! People don’t need music to survive. Music is a luxury, a want. If you want something which costs money, you pay for it. If you feel it is too expensive, stealing it is not a valid response.

I do want to see fair use in Australia. To allow the legal use of mp3 players and backup up purchased media. I feel for the young man in hot water at the moment, but people need to realise and warn thier children, that illegal acts performed in public (the internet) can have dire consequences and being in public are easily caught.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:31:40 +0000

Nice to see ARIA are keeping some perspective on who they prosecute and are clearly going after some key perpetrators!

[That was sarcasm by the way, just in case anyone thought I had lost it.]

This is just another example of how this insidious global organisation focusses only on soft targets for maximum media effect and income. The sooner respective governments wake up and smell the coffee and legislate against this behaviour the better. [Like that's ever going to happen...]

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 21:06:17 +0000

i live in australia, i know our copyright laws are a joke but i had no idea it was this bad. this is absolutely disgusting, i have been ashamed to be an australian before but this just crosses the line. prosecuting a minor for something as pathetic as that? honest to god, without file sharing half of today’s music artists wouldn’t have half the recognition as they do now.
to be able to be prosecuted for backing up a music CD you have bought is down right absurd, for god’s sake the law allows us to backup software we have bought why on earth aren’t we allowed to backup music? no being able to rip music is even worse, we aren’t allowed to do it but they don’t ban iPods or any other MP3 players? what a joke! somewhat condesending as well if you ask me. if you’re going to sue this person for linking to an mp3 site, why not sue apple for releasing the iPod? or better yet, sue Creative for bringing out the first mp3 player. hell, while we’re at it, let’s all get together and sue microsoft for releasing software which allows the user to rip a cd simply by pressing the big button labeled “RIP” at the top of the screen? i’m sure the australian reputation will get a right kick out of that!
the actions undertaken by the australian government in the forementioned article are absurd, disgusting and downright loathsome! no longer will i be a ‘happy australian’ as the stereotype so labels me, but instead i will be a bitter, angry resident who will have great difficulty in expressing the words “you’re safe in australia”. the enemy is in control.

please post this comment so everyone can see. feel free to e-mail me at trycatchavibe@hotmail.com