Australiaâs draft DRM changes
p2pnet.net News:- The Australian Government has announced proposed changes to the Copyright Act to implement its undertakings with the United State`s Free Trade Agreement.
Particularly interesting are the new offences bringing in civil remedies and criminal penalties where a person circumvents DRM, previously not within the Act, and further criminal penalties for dealing in circumvention devices and services with offenders facing up to five years imprisonment and/or fines of 550 penalty units (currently $60,500).
Exceptions currently in the Bill cover:
- Interoperability between software
- Encryption research
- Computer security testing
- Online privacy
- Law enforcement and national security, and
- Libraries and other related institutions.
Comments on the exposure draft of the Bill will also be accepted until 22 September 2006 with the intention of introducing it to Parliament in mid October.
The copyright regulations will also be amended to include access where, for example:
- The DRM is obsolete, lost, damaged, defective, malfunctioning or unusable and a replacement is not provided, and
- The DRM damages a product, or where circumvention is necessary to repair a product.
These exceptions will be clarified in the exposure draft of the Regulations to be released for comment in the next month.
The attorney general`s department is willing to consider other suggestions and is seeking comments by September 22.
These may include such things as:
- Making back-up copies of software
- Correcting errors in software
- Allowing institutions to help those with an intellectual disability
- Making copies of works for broadcasts, and
- Making copies of copyright material for criticism, review or news reporting by broadcasters.
I haven’t see anything yet that indicates an exception for those that want to format shift sound recordings, one of the expanded fair dealing rights suggested earlier in the year.
Sally Hawkins – p2pnet, Australia
[Hawkins is a former musician and songwriter who decided to study law after doing a course in Music Business Management in 1991; she's worked for various departments in both Federal and State Australian Government, holds a Bachelors Degree in Legal and Justice Studies (Criminal Law), a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and is currently a postgraduate student with Southern Cross University writing a thesis on Copyright Law/P2P File Sharing.]
Also See:
Australian Copyright Council
The Bill
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September 7th, 2006 at 1:39 am
If you’ve sat down and read the very boring, but very scary FTA you’ll notice that these proposals are almost straight out of the American DMCA.
If you’ve read anything about the DMCA, you’ll see it’s one of the most hated pieces of legislation in the tech community. It doesn’t represent the will of the people, it represents a comparitively small group of multi-nationals. Do you know any small or independent artists who can afford DRM protections that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars?
I’d go so far as to say it is your duty as Australians not to allow foreign corporations to get special protection on our soil.
I’m writing my letter and you’ll see it on p2pnet when I’m done.
Get writing.
September 7th, 2006 at 1:58 am
I wouldn’t say boring, just factual, but I’m with you Alex.