[LINK] Does copyright have a future? [WAS: iinet wins!!]

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

> > Costs are an issue, but the various industry bodies in the States have
> > proven that they will litigate on an individual (and relatively wide)
> > basis to stem the flood-tide as they see it. I'd anticipate that
> > they'll do the same here picking their targets for maximum publicity 
> > and minimal ability to defend themselves ... as they have done in the 
> > States .. the ancillary benefits of contested legal action from their 
> > perspective are publicity they don't have to pay for and attendant 
> > fear and expectation of dire consequences for piracy amongst their
> > user base ..


And, i'd guess that in some cases, piracy is clear-cut and well-defined,
and probably NOT be supported by most people, who realize that on-going
industry development of favourite media needs to be sometimes protected?

For example ..

Queensland Nintendo pirate cops $1.5m fine 

Mahesh Sharma From: Australian IT February 09, 2010 4:09PM 

The Federal Court has ordered Queensland man James Burt to pay Nintendo 
$1.5 million in damages after he illegally copied and distributed a part 
of the Super Mario Bros. videogame for the Nintendo Wii console a week 
before its official release. 

The Japanese gaming company announced the settlement today and said the 
damages would compensate for the loss of revenue caused by the piracy.
 
According to Mr Burt’s MySpace site, he is 24 years old and has worked as 
a manager at games retailer Electronics Boutique in a store in Brisbane 
since 2004.
 
Nintendo said the game file of Super Mario Bros. for the Wii was first 
uploaded and made available for illegal download on 6 November, 2009, a 
week before the game’s official Australian release.

After it tracked down Mr Burt, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court order on 
23 November to search his premises in Sinnamon Park, Queensland for 
electronic data related to his email, website and social networking 
accounts.

Nintendo seized a range of property and used this as evidence against Mr 
Burt.
 
Both parties reached a settlement on 27 January.
 
At the time of publication, Mr Burt did not respond to emailed requests 
for comment.
 
In a statement Nintendo said that piracy jeopardises the strength of the 
video game industry.
 
"Fewer sales of Nintendo’s hardware and software systems means fewer 
resources that Nintendo, its licensees, developers and publishers have to 
create and market new video game products which is ultimately to the 
detriment of video game enthusiasts."

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Cheers,
Stephen