[LINK] Oz copyright amendment on /.

[Rick Welykochy]

Kevin Littlejohn wrote:

> But does that give you the right to tell me what I can do with my playstation?

Certainly. If I make it, I can licence it. Don't you want to retain
the
right to be able to specify exactly what licence you provide the rest
of the world as far as use and reproduction of something you create?

I often choose to GPL software I write ... that is my right. I don't think
the copyright amendements in Oz change that. But if I don't offer a
free as in liberty licence, that's also my right and choice. 

I can see this argument has two valid and differing points of view,
(the rights of the creator and the fair use of same by a consumer)
but the new legislation seems to be invalidating the latter.


> Or what software I can install on my computer (ie. I have burning software on
> there - how long before that comes under the same heading of "tools used for
> piracy")? 

Have you ever seen banks of video can cassette recorders in Indonesia
(to pick but one example) spewing out illegal copies of copyrighted
works? Are these "tools for piracy"? Ab absurdum, isn't the human brain
a "tool for piracy" as well?


> The right of the producer to protect their work is starting to
> translate into the right to stop us tinkering with unrelated or barely-related
> things.  Metaphors abound, but I don't think they're necessary - your right to
> protect your work now stops me delving into the guts of my playstation so I
> can play Asian distributed games.  Heaven forfend I decide to shift countries
> - I'm still trying to work out if Jack Valenti and co will replace all my
> region 4 DVD's with region 1's.  These laws go further toward stopping me from
> dealing with these issues myself, under the dubious title of "protecting the
> producer's rights".

I'm in agreement with you there. Artificially crippling the *playback*
ability of a work you legitimately purchase, solely for market control
and profiteering is immoral, smacks of monopolistic control and just
plain sux.  I remember being gob-smacked when I first read about DVD region
control.


--
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services Pty Limited