[LINK] itNews: Copyright-Owners Oppose ALRC

[Roger Clarke]

[It's official:
(1)  copyright-dependent corporations don't want a fair deal for consumers
(2)  they do want to continue receiving a subsidy from the tax-payer,
      by having their commercial rights enforced by government agencies ]


Copyright owners group tears apart law review process

By Andrew Colley on Aug 7, 2013 6:59 AM (9 hours ago)
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/352530,copyright-owners-group-tears-apart-law-review-process.aspx

Warns fair use proposal would boost litigation.

Australia's home entertainment industry lobby has slammed the 
Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) over its handling of a review 
of the country's copyright regime.

The Australian Home Entertainment Distributor's Association (AHEDA) 
savaged the ALRC in a submission paper rebutting a proposal to 
introduce fair use provisions to intellectual property laws.  

The fair use proposal was outlined in a discussion paper the ALRC 
released last August.

AHEDA chief executive Simon Bush said a regime based on fair use 
would lead to an increase in piracy and require litigation to be 
defined.

That, he said, would put pressure on copyright owners to litigate 
directly against consumers.

He said the AHEDA wanted the current regime based on exceptions retained.
"It's a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist," Bush said.

"We don't want to be suing end users. It's the very last thing we 
want to do and any policy proposal that says you need to litigate is 
flawed."

In its submission, AHEDA repeated its accusations that the commission 
had stacked the review panel to the detriment of commercial copyright 
owners.

Bush openly admitted that the association had "gone to town" in 
criticising the review panel and the commission.

In particular, it expressed concern that the likes of Google and 
Facebook - which both stand to benefit from any relaxation of 
copyright rules - were included on the panel, but no commercial 
copyright stakeholders had been given the same opportunity.

"The advisory panel is made up of the likes of Google, Facebook and 
various copy-left (sic) academics so it's no surprise that they've 
come up with a fair use view of the world. There's not one commercial 
copyright owner represented," Bush said.

AHEDA, however, went further attacking the credibility of research 
upon which the panel relied to produce its discussion paper.

"Analysis of the footnotes in the discussion paper reveals a 
concerning trend in the document towards over-referencing of the 
submissions by the same set of individuals and organisations," AHEDA 
wrote in its submission.

It then went on to add "18 per cent of footnoted references are to 
submissions written by, or otherwise directly connected with, members 
of the ALRC Advisory Committee who support the ALRC's central 
recommendation that a broad fair use regime be adopted".

It also questioned the soundness of a Google-funded study based on 
Singapore's market that found that fair use would "not necessarily" 
damage rights holders.

Australian economist Dr George Barker was given access by the 
Singaporean Government to the underlying data upon which the report 
relied and found that it couldn't support its key conclusions.

The ALRC did not respond to requests for comment. However, Professor 
Rosalind Croucher said last year that the ALRC had agreed to 
establish a reference group for the entertainment industry.

Former Attorney-General Nicola Roxon ordered the review in part as a 
response to the outcome of a landmark copyright authorisation case 
that reached the High Court.

The court battle ended with Perth-headquartered ISP, iiNet, 
successfully defending itself against allegations by Hollywood 
studios that it authorised its customers to pirate thousands of 
movies.

The trial was the first of its kind in the world and copyright 
holders took the view that Hollywood's defeat was proof that new 
legislation was required to combat online piracy.

Bush said the rights holders would be renewing efforts to pressure 
government to tackle online piracy after the September 7 election.


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 6916                        http://about.me/roger.clarke
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University