RSS Feed…but that doesn’t mean those of us living in Australia should ignore it.
As serious as SOPA is, I don’t want to talk about it. There are plenty of other sources about that if you’re interested. Instead, I want to talk about similar overzealous laws in Australia. In particular, one such American law that “infected” Australia in 2004, and another law that might be coming in the near future.
Australians — educate yourselves! Click below to read on!
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Like SOPA, the DMCA was originally an American thing. In 2004 it came to our shores as part of a free trade agreement. Apart from increasing copyright terms to a staggering life plus 70 years (more than required by the Berne convention), the DMCA has some funny laws on security.
Basically, it is illegal to circumvent any kind of technical security on content, no matter how badly designed those locks were in the first place. It’s not just bad guys who break locks. Consider the Russian programmer nabbed by the FBI for daring to circumvent Adobe’s security so blind people could make audible copies of e-books. Or how Lexmark tried to use the DMCA to squash competitors providing generic-name ink cartridges at low prices.
Coming Soon… AFACT-Sponsored Legislation?
Thinking of the great response to SOPA, I hope Australians are motivated to do something similar the next time our government considers a law that censors the internet. I would like to think, had the Great Firewall of Australia not died an early death, that we would’ve protested as strongly.
The Firewall may be dead, but let’s not get complacent!
You’re probably aware that AFACT has been tussling with iinet for some time now about piracy. What you may not have been aware of is the extent to which AFACT is acting at the behest of American interests.
Despite the lead role of AFACT and the inclusion of Australian companies Roadshow and Seven, this is an MPAA/American studios production …
Mike Ellis, the Singapore-based president for Asia-Pacific of the MPA, confirmed that AFACT is essentially MPAA’s Australian subcontractor, acting on behalf of the six American studios involved (Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and Disney).
AFACT and MPAA worked hard to get Village Roadshow and the Seven Network to agree to be the public Australian faces on the case to make it clear there are Australian equities at stake, and this isn’t just Hollywood ‘bullying some poor little Australian ISP’.
And why iinet? Why not Telstra which, as the biggest internet provider in Australia, is likely to “enable” the most piracy?
[Mike Ellis did not want to] begin by tangling with Telstra, the still dominant player in telephony and internet, and a company with the financial resources and demonstrated willingness to fight hard and dirty, in court and out.
They’re bullies looking for weak targets, in other words.
AFACT may be doing poorly in its court battle against iinet, but that’s not where this is likely to end. The government may consider AFACT’s loss as a reason to enact legislation against piracy. And Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s bias is clear.
Should that legislation come, we need to examine it carefully. If it stinks like SOPA, we need to fight it just like the Americans are fighting SOPA.
The original Deck16 was a toxic slime production facility. Little has changed.