Copyright, shmopyright
Lots of information on Australian copyright law, sorted into handy fact sheets.
- recording TV programmes — it’s not actually strictly legal, even for timeshifting
- ripping your own CDs to another format — also not legal
, unless the CD is no longer commercially available(Whoops, I misread that). Though the sheet falls down on claiming there are legal avenues to buy MP3s… nah… AACs, WMAs, but not MP3s - perhaps slightly bizarrely, information on line dancing
Even if a CD is “no longer commercially available” you still can’t legally copy it. You have to wait for the copyright to expire or get permission from the copyright owner.
I really hope that the government can introduce some sanity into the copyright laws in its current review of the copyright situation.
Did you read the bit towards the end about the information sheet? They don’t even let you copy that!! You’re allowed to download and print ONE copy of it!
So, in fact, using iTunes to rip music off a CD you purchased and dump that on your iPod is illegal in Australia?? That’s a whole lotta lawsuits just waiting to happen…
Re: Timeshifting video – similarlarly, Foxtel IQ – sold to us specifically for that purpose.
Well, it’s consistent at least – it’s still legal to sell toxic poisons specifically for human consumption (eg. cigarettes), even though it’s illegal to systematically poison someone unto death.
Oh well, time to illegally load some more CDs onto my iPod
Foxtel IQ is legal because you’re paying to continue using it, and you’re paying someone who is presumably authorised to sell it. It’s not copying at all, really, because it’s just allowing you to watch a program again when you like, but only if you keep paying. If you stop paying your IQ no longer lets you watch recordings.
So it’s just like adjusting the TV schedule to suit yourself (which is what a proper video recorder or PVR allows, but the crucial difference is that those allow you to do it without pouring more money into the accounts of the TV companies).
I don’t understand why copyright lasts longer than a patent – really, which is more useful to society, a song or the design of a pen? Why do songs get 70+ years of protection?
The reason copyright lasts for as long as it does is because the Disney corporation didn’t want to lose exclusive control of Mickey Mouse.
The mouse that ate the public domain