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May 16, 2006
Ruddock: a dill or what?
Could it be that we've misjudged Alice Ruddock, our nitpicking Attorney General, who, as we mentioned below, replaced our insane copyright regime under which we couldn't copy anything, with even more insane legislation that allows us to copy some things, provided we record them in a different format, and show the copy only once? Possibly in an unlit room. Alone. With the volume turned right down.
We were forced to reconsider our judgment - that Ruddock is an ass, and an unlikeable ass at that - by one of the comments on the Mashup blog [which has sort of replaced the Razor blog on the SMH and The Age]. According to Mark A.:
I think these new laws are great. What the Government has done is found a way to shaft the record companies while making it appear that they have sold us out to them. I mean now we have the RIGHT to copy and format shift any TV shows and CD's and abosultely no way for anybody to determine if we have watched it once twice or a hundred times.That would make Ruddock a sly genius, wouldn't it? Rather than a genuine dill. But after thorough consideration, we have to say that we just can't see it Mark's way. For our money, Ruddock follows in the noble traditions of our former Communications Minister, Senator Richard Alston, who stunned the world with his ability to stuff up practically every decision he made involving digital technology.The Government has made sure the record companies will have absolutely no way to prosecute anybody as they won't be able to prove anything! That's the real point. Do you think that if the Government allowed the Record/Movie industry to create "watch once only" DVD's , CD's, VCR's and related electronic goods, either the government or the industry would last a couple of weeks? Do you think that if the these new laws were in any way enforceable Phillip Ruddock would still be in a job? I think not!
Posted by cw at May 16, 2006 06:52 PM
Comments
Everyone knows that everyone copies disks. I make two copies of every software disk I buy - a backup and an archive. The backup gets used for re-installs or whatever, the archive I actually get cryovaced and put into storage, as a emergency backup backup, if you get my drift.
Technically illegal? Yes. Prosecutable? No. Where's the criminal intent, and, if they do it for one "average" Joe they'd have to ping everyone.
Posted by: Newman at May 16, 2006 10:02 PM
This all sounds great, but what about the US-Aus Free Trade Agreement? Please correct me if I am wrong, but the part that makes circumventing a copyright protection mechanism is being brought to Australia via the FTA?
How would that affect us with this law? Wouldn't we be back to same situation, but with different laws?
Posted by: David Wilson at May 17, 2006 09:12 AM
Hi BE
I prefer to consider DMW (Dead Man Walking)is indeed a corruptible fool. This wezel is only a lawyer and a bad one at that. Can you tell I'm not a fan of his?
Cheers
Posted by: Thug at May 17, 2006 10:27 AM
The quoted commenter from the SMH blog is a fool.. Of course "DVD's , CD's, VCR's" don't have any way of tracking multiple views of a recording, but you can bet your arse that as soon as Australia catches up with the developed world and PVRs (like Tivo) become more widely available and we're all switched to digital television, everything will come down the pipe laden with DRM and broadcast flags that inhibit your use of media to exactly within the letter of the law..
Posted by: Nicholas b at May 17, 2006 04:59 PM
AG Media Release 9. What if my CD has copy protection applied to it?The Government is still considering this issue of copy protection.
I was sure in the article that used to be here , that there was a quote from Ruddock about ensuring that the' Rootkit' stunt from SonyBMG would not be allowed to happen here in Australia.
We were lucky not to have the SonyBMG Rootkit land here in Oz, though some MediaMax imports are still on the shelves here (Santana at my Local JB HI-FI is still on the shelf)
The 'Copy Control' protected CD's are everywhere at your local record store (Pick up a Norah Jones CD) and they clearly state on the back of the disc 'This may not work in some players' because they format shift the content of the disc based on the player you are trying to use. To bypass this in a Windows PC just hold the shift key when inserting the disc and use it in a CD/DVD Writer and not just a CD/DVD Reader so you are able to see all of the sessions on the disc as in a standard reader you cannot see the hidden layers.
With CD's such as 'Copy Control' you must circumvent the protection so you can listen to it in a car CD player, so will the government allow us to break this copy protection to format shift the content to be able to play on the device of your choice?
Posted by: Stephen at May 17, 2006 05:20 PM