Australian Copyright Report Calls for Balance
The Australian House Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs has released a report on technological protection measures (TPMs).
TPMs are "components, software and other devices that are used to protect copyright material from being copied or accessed. These measures are increasingly common as a means of self-protection for copyright owners in response to increasing copyright infringement in the digital age."
Companies love'em. Users often hate'em.
LawFont.com explains what is in the report and also links to other commentators (Michael Geist, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Boing Boing, etc.). The author, Kimberlee Weatherall, writes that this is the second Australian government body to have "affirmed that copyright law must be balanced; that anti-circumvention laws should be matched to copyright rights, rather than overly extending them."
The University of Ottawa's Michael Geist provides a Canadian angle:
"This report should obviously be required reading in Canada. In fact, it should be more than just read. It should be matched by a similar process (just as recently occured in the UK) that ensures that Canadian law similarly preserves the appropriate balance should we enact anti-circumvention provisions. The copyright lobby argued that Bill C-60 did not go far enough in protecting TPMs. It seems to me that this report from independent parliamentarians (no pro-user zealots there) confirms that the opposite is true: the bill did not do enough to provide consumers and the marketplace with adequate protections from TPMs."
TPMs are "components, software and other devices that are used to protect copyright material from being copied or accessed. These measures are increasingly common as a means of self-protection for copyright owners in response to increasing copyright infringement in the digital age."
Companies love'em. Users often hate'em.
LawFont.com explains what is in the report and also links to other commentators (Michael Geist, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Boing Boing, etc.). The author, Kimberlee Weatherall, writes that this is the second Australian government body to have "affirmed that copyright law must be balanced; that anti-circumvention laws should be matched to copyright rights, rather than overly extending them."
The University of Ottawa's Michael Geist provides a Canadian angle:
"This report should obviously be required reading in Canada. In fact, it should be more than just read. It should be matched by a similar process (just as recently occured in the UK) that ensures that Canadian law similarly preserves the appropriate balance should we enact anti-circumvention provisions. The copyright lobby argued that Bill C-60 did not go far enough in protecting TPMs. It seems to me that this report from independent parliamentarians (no pro-user zealots there) confirms that the opposite is true: the bill did not do enough to provide consumers and the marketplace with adequate protections from TPMs."
Labels: copyright, government_Australia
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