p2pnet - rss feed: Closer to an Oz fair use law
p2p news view / p2pnet: The Australian Attorney-General announced on 18 February 2005 that the Federal Government would be conducting an inquiry into whether Australia should adopt a ‘fair use’ provision similar to that in the US. For most of the year Australians have been waiting for a resolution to this inquiry. They’ve read the issues paper. 200 or so people/organisations/companies went to the trouble of preparing submissions. We’ve even talked about the inquiry in the past go here and here.
To recap - under current Australian laws, Australian consumers can’t legally purchase a CD, rip it, and then convert it to an mp3 or WMA file that can be played on a digital player such as an iPod. Australian consumers can’t legally back up CDs they have purchased. Time shifting using a DVD recorder or video cassette recorder is also illegal. It has been said that Australia’s copyright laws date back to the 1960s - thereby pre-dating computers, DVDs, VCRs, FM radio and colour television. Intern-what? Broadbeans?
Well, while there have been no official announcements, it seems we may be close to the introduction of an Australian fair use law. The Federal Attorney-General had this to say at a high flying copyright seminar last week:
Par: 31 (2) “We should not treat everyday Australians who want to use technology to enjoy copyright material they have obtained legally as infringers, where this does not cause harm to our copyright industries.”
Par 44. “. many user interests consider that some present exceptions need updating to maintain a fair copyright balance in the digital age.”
Par 45 “As a result I have identified potential areas of reform for further Government consideration. These include:
to supplement the fair dealing exceptions with a new extended dealings exception that can apply to a wider range of permitted uses.
adding new exceptions to recognise some everyday forms of private copying that do not harm copyright owners such as “time-shifting” (eg, taping a TV show to watch at a later time) and “format shifting” (eg, putting a CD you have bought onto your IPod).”
Par 49 “. individuals who acquire legitimate copyright products such as CDs should be able to reasonably use them for their own purposes without technically infringing the law.”
But there may be a trade-off with some benefits going to copyright owners:
Par 32 “But we should take tougher measures to deal with copyright pirates who make a profit or cause significant damage by ripping off other people’s material.”
The catch-cry may be “balance”, or at least the Federal Government’s perception of balance with many Australian legal and policy commentators thinking that Australia’s copyright laws are already too heavily skewed towards the rights of copyright owners:
Par 33 “This targeted approach of getting tougher on pirates, while easing the law for Australian consumers, is one driving my reform agenda in copyright.”
Giving the dog a bone. If it eventuates, the AG’s trade-off styled approach shouldn’t surprise anyone.
The Australian recording industry is widely regarded to have opposed the introduction of fair use laws in Australia. I say “widely regarded” because we don’t exactly know what the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) said in their submission to the inquiry, since for some reason, they haven’t published their submission on their website. (Many other groups have published their submissions.) But if we look at theARIA’s past press releases and comments, they certainly seemed to be focused on maintaining the status quo.
We know for example that ARIA opposed the introduction of a blank media levy describing it as “flawed, cumbersome and very unsatisfactory“.
If it takes place, the introduction of an Australian fair use law will represent a loss for the recording industry who opposed it, and a major victory for consumers and common sense. Tougher penalties for commercial pirates seem reasonable enough . and in any event the Federal Government probably felt that they had to throw the copyright industries a compensatory bone.
Australia seems to be a country of fast adopters (DVDs, broadband, digital music players), yet our laws often seem to be stuck in another millennium. We’re probably willing to swallow tougher penalties for commercial pirates if it means we can finally and legally use our iPods in the manner in which was always intended.
For the full speech see: Symposium
Alex Malik - p2pnet
[Malik is a lawyer, music industry commentator, and PHD researcher at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.]
