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May 17, 2006
VHS, Beta or Self-Destructing Hard Drive?
X-Men 3 sucked, but I'll get over it. In one of the week's few pieces of good news (along with what looks like a viable AIDS vaccine), Australia is likely to enact new copyright laws, in which we shall no longer be committing a crime by ripping CDs and placing them on our iPods. Recording television will now also be legal. I know you've waited 20 years to tape something legally on your VCR, and now you are free to do so without fear of prosecution.
Of course, there's a catch. Any recording you make must be watched only once and then destroyed. You are free to invite your friends to come around and watch your recording, but they must watch it at the same time as you - if they watch it before you do, then it's been watched and must be destroyed. I'm not kidding.
That's it, Ruddock. Bend over. You know, you don't have to listen to the industry lobbyists when they ask you for absurd provisions that will never be enforced, designed only to protect DVD sales and cripple the introduction of TiVo-esque hard drive recorders in this country. America laughed in their faces when these things were demanded there. The introduction in this country of recording hardware with inbuilt "watch-once" features is more likely with these laws in place, although I have no doubt that consumers will no doubt soundly reject such absurdities.
"Everyday consumers shouldn't be treated like copyright pirates," Ruddock says. "Copyright pirates should not be treated like everyday consumers."
Great sentiment, and yet we introduce laws designed to put everybody in the country with a VCR in breach of them. This morning I interviewed a copyright expert who claimed that it wasn't so bad, because the old law was silly and will never be policed, so a new silly law won't be policed either. I'm sorry, but is there anything more dangerous than accepting an absurd law because we know it's so absurd that it will never be enforced?
If Australian law does not keep up with the changing pace of technology, we'll find our content industries completely burned out and destroyed by the internet within the decade. Other more enlightened countries have realised the smart thing is to levy blank media and provide royalties to the artists, and to introduce legitimate, legal download services which are every bit as easy to use as the illegal ones -- the American TV networks are now beginning to sell or stream their content online, and although most of it is restricted so that Australians can't get to it, it's but a trivial hack away to fool the servers and get to it. For as long as we don't keep up, and for as long as we don't recognise the changing face of the digital planet, Australian artists and creators will continue to be left behind. Lip service changes to copyright to make sane some of the insanities of the last couple of decades is always welcome, but all we're really left with is further proof of a government that doesn't get it.
Other fun changes include the ability to make mix discs, but only if we "format shift". We can make a disc of MP3s, but not a disc of full quality audio, from my layman's interpretation of this FAQ:
Can I make a compilation CD by copying tracks from CDs that I own to a blank CD?
Yes, if you copy the tracks in a different format to the original, such as making a compilation CD in MP3 format.
But to give the government credit, they've been realistic in one sense - we don't have to ensure that only legitimate rightsholders are within earshot. At least if they're a friend - if you don't like them, it may still be a copyright violation:
Will I be able to share my music collection with a friend?
No. You will not be able to sell, loan or give away any format-shift copy you make in a different format, but a friend can listen to your music with you.
Posted by patrick at May 17, 2006 4:09 PM
