p2pnet - rss feed: On-the-spot copyright fines
p2p news / p2pnet: More details of the changes to Australian copyright laws have been released. And they’re scary.
Oz police officers would be able make on-the-spot fines if they had, “reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed,” a spokeswoman for attorney general Philip Ruddock it quoted as saying, states the Courier Mail.
The proposed fine would be around A$1,320, but would increase to between A$6,600 and A$93,500 if the case ended up in court.
The story also reports, “sellers of pirate discs and movies could also be forced to repay what they earn through sales of unlicensed material under proceeds of crime laws.”
Most Australians are currently unaware that they break the law every time they record a movie from the TV or rip the contents of their CD collection onto their mp3 players. At the same time, these laws are never enforced. Even real piracy, like selling bootleg DVDs at markets and car boot sales goes unpunished due to the time and effort that police and prosecutors must put into preparing a legal case.
p2pnet correspondent Alex H posted on Australia’s lack of a fair use doctrine a while ago:
“Under the Australian system, ‘fair dealing’ is very different from “fair use”. Fair dealing means you’re allowed to copy stuff only if the copying falls under one or more of the specific exceptions set out in the Copyright Act. Australians are only allowed to copy certain things in the specific ways that the government says are okay. This is a pretty bad system because it relies on the government actively working out what’s okay to copy and thinking about that kind of thing on a regular basis.”
Police in Australia will now be able to be co-opted by Big Media in their war against ‘copyright theft’.
Details on whether file sharing will be included in the list of on-the-spot fines for copyright infringement offences have not yet been released, but with Big Music’s ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) voicing their praise for the proposed laws, the situation is starting to look pretty worrying for those living Down Under.
Stay tuned.
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See:
Australian copyright - Australian copyright changes, May 15, 2006
Courier Mail - Pirates risk stiffer penalties, May 24, 2006
lack of a fair use doctrine - ‘I’m not a bad guy anymore!’, Jan 21, 2006
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May 24th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
“Oz police officers would be able make on-the-spot fines if they had, “reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed,”"
Elsewhere where that similar schemes or unjust high traffic fines have been tried has resulted only in the corruption of the cops who will take a fraction of the fine for themselves over the full fine for the state.
Of course, cops themselves, relatives, judges, lawyers, politicians will never be fined. Just the kids who are not savvy enough to avoid detection and too fearful to fight fabricated cases.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
May 24th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
“Australians are currently unaware that they break the law every time they record a movie from the TV or rip the contents of their CD collection onto their mp3 players.”
Really? WTF?
Those are some messed up laws.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Ya, the oz copyright laws basically havnt changed since 1968. They’ve made a few samll changes but the main parts date back to before tv and the internet.
pretty screwed eh?
May 25th, 2006 at 12:24 am
Anyone thinking the cops will actually lift a pen to write up a pirate is having themselves one wonderful trip. It will not stop the cartels from pleading with government to increase the advantage they already have when it comes to consumers who want to use the products that they buy. Maybe someone should ask the police if they are actually going to do anyting
May 25th, 2006 at 12:43 am
“They will remove the added time and expense that police would normally face in preparing a case against an offender in court… a police officer will be able to issue and on-the-spot fine to a person if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed…”
This should read: “They will remove the pain in the ass provisions that depend on a presumption of innocence, and wasting time letting people have a fair trial… a police officer will be able to issue on-the-spot fines to a person if the officer has in anyway taken a disliking to them, they cannot afford to bribe the officer, or the officer is looking for a way to improve their performance reports… and none of the money will in anyway be returned to the copyright holders or artists so this could become a nice little revenue earner for the government….”
May 25th, 2006 at 11:16 am
This provision was written for physical piracy and the various sellers at open markets they sell counterfeit disks .The police are not going to enter your home to see if you have ripped too many copies of your favorite CD,
May 25th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
“This provision was written for physical piracy and the various sellers at open markets they sell counterfeit disks .The police are not going to enter your home to see if you have ripped too many copies of your favorite CD,”
My friend X travels frequently to a country where DVD movies are very cheap. He has purchased many of these DVD. The DVDs look and perform like the real thing.
But let say that the DVDs are actually very good fakes and my friend, who suspects nothing and did nothing illegally puts them up for sale a the flea market.
He, who is inocent, could get arrested and that is wrong.
Clearly what should be illegal is the manufacture of fake DVDs, not the selling, if the seller is not the manufacturer, as no one should be obliged to investigate if a product for sale and purchased is fake or ligitimate.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
May 26th, 2006 at 11:42 am
ever met a cop? even the good ones shouldn’t be left to decide the guilt or innocence of someone..anyway they would only get in the way of record and film company lawyers already deciding that
May 26th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
your friend should be smart enough to know that the DVDs probably come from a dodgy source and not be so stupid to sell them at a open market ,
May 27th, 2006 at 2:01 am
“your friend should be smart enough to know”
Sorry.I dont follow the argument.
Knowing if a DVD is fake or hot or smuggled or dumped or discontinued, or damaged, or used, all of which could explain low prices is not a matter of being smart.
Additionally there any reason for a buyer of a low priced DVD to determine if the sale is legal or not, when the product is purchased from a store or a street vendor or an acquaintance.
So, there is no reason for not reselling the low cost DVDs to anyone.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com