[LINK] Australia, Second Class Citizens, according to EMI

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Kim Holburn
> Sent: Wednesday, 14 December 2011 12:00 AM
> To: Link list
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Australia, Second Class Citizens, according to EMI
> 
> 
> You know, I don't think Australia is in a lot different 
> position to many countries.  Copyright law differs in each 
> country and is incredibly complicated.  As for the takedowns, 
> the megaupload - UMG saga makes compelling reading:
> 
> http://boingboing.net/2011/12/10/universal-music-files-fraudule.html
> 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/dec/13/megaupload-univers
> al-youtube-video?newsfeed=true
> 
> https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-to-sue-universal-joins-fig
ht-against-sopa-111212/
<SNIP>

Kim,

This content hasn’t been taken down. It is filtered for au IP numbers. Although piracy is often used as the excuse to put the smaller guys (competitors to the larger labels) out of business.

One wonders how many little kids the bullies in the schoolyard have to beat up before governments realise that maybe the rumours of RICO like mafia tactics from the music industry have a basis in fact originating somewhere in the hills of Sicily, in a little hamlet called (I think) Cosa Nostra. 

My comment was that Australian residents are being treated as second class citizens by EMI.
You responded that other countries are also subject to copyright restrictions.

By visiting annonymouse.org (or click on Ref [1] below) and entering the Video's URL, one can view the comments from some of the 188,359 citizens that have viewed the video, originating from the "first class" EMI approved countries.

I found user names from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Ireland and comments identifying their country of origin included:

Philippines - merry xmas from The Philippines
USA - merry Christmas to you, too! From New Brunswick!
Canada - Merry Christmas from Vancouver, Canada!
England - England misses ya The world misses ya Liverpool misses ya, 
Austria     - "Stille Nacht" greetings from Austria
Portugal   - muito bom , maravilhoso, e muita SAÙDE e PAZ em 2000 e 10 para todos
Columbia  - gloria a Dios en el cielo, y en la tierra paz a los hombres que ama el señor...
Croatia - SRETAN I BLAGOSLOVLJEN BOŽIĆ SVIMA!

[1] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-tErSwqm7g&feature=fvwrel

Ergo, Australia is a second class country as far as EMI is concerned, behind such first class copyright observing countries like Columbia, Canada, Croatia and Hungary. (Best joke I have heard all day... Especially as the IPFI 2010 RIN report suggested that Australia was the only country that had achieved the holy grail of positive growth in a digital world where all other markets had dropped into negative numbers.)
Pleasingly, I discovered that we are in the same "copyright basket" as Romania, Russia, China and Turkey.

Justification aside, for too long Australia has been shafted by Hollywood with the highest media content prices outside of Japan.

This years 2011 IPFI RIN report stated:

Quote/
Music video services such as VEVO and MTV are commanding significant audiences and monetising them by selling targeted advertising. YouTube remains the most popular platform for viewing music videos online, accounting for around 40 per cent of online videos watched in major markets. Justin Bieber's Baby is the most watched music video online with more than 430 million views on YouTube. 
/Quote

And then

Quote/
Independent research consistently shows that availability of content for free is the main driver of online piracy. In 2010, new surveys confirmed this trend in Sweden (GfK), Australia (CCi Digital Futures), the UK (Harris Interactive) and China (The Nielsen Company). 
/Quote

I wonder if those IPFI persons realise that Youtube is also driven by free content and that users would prefer to get the content from Youtube unless they are told to POQ, in which case alternatives are looked for.

It would appear that Australians viewing Youtube Adverts, are not worth as much as other countries. Could it be that because the Au dollar is so high, EMI would prefer we purchased out music from iTunes... Oh wait, are the Beatles available on iTunes ???

I refuse to believe that our legislators are unable to discern that the industry representative body is deceiving only itself.

Either way, I stand by my original comment, "Australia is being treated as a second class country" by EMI's copyright legal eagles...." and we shouldnt put up with it. Our Youtube advertising revenue is at least equal to any other country's and refusing access is at best self deceptive (most people kinow about proxy services) and at worst, unfair trade practices. 

<SNIP>

TomK