Industry: Conroy’s urge for piracy code of conduct is premature
- 08 February, 2010 15:40
- Comments 11
Broadband Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy’s calls for the ISP and movie industry to formulate a bilateral code of conduct does not address the root cause of copyright disputes, according to industry watchers.
Senator Conroy appeared on ABC’s Hungry Beast program to comment on the recent iiNet versus Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) copyright court case. Last week, the judge on the case, Justice Cowdroy, ruled in favour of the Perth-based ISP. AFACT, which represents a number of Hollywood studios, is expected to appeal.
The Broadband Minister said he made efforts to encourage discussions between the two industries for the past two years and urged both sides to form a code of practice rather than resort to legal means.
The Pirate Party, a group advocating decriminalisation of non-commercial file sharing, perceived Conroy’s comments as an ultimatum for the ISP and the movie industry to self-regulate or be slapped with legislation. While a code of conduct may sound reasonable in theory, underlying business model problems and persistent issues on both sides will make compiling one a near impossible task, Pirate Party spokesperson, Rodney Serkowski, said.
“I’m not even sure if it’s preferable for ISPs to enter into an agreement with the industry,” he said. “I’d be interested to know what a code of conduct involves and whether [it includes] termination of an Internet connection – which should not be able to occur without legal jurisdiction.”
An alternative to devising a mutual agreement was to overhaul copyright laws themselves and make them more representative of the digital paradigm, Serkowski said.
“Presently, the Copyright Act is insufficient to serve the digital economy and reforming the laws themselves is necessary then to tackle the underlying problem of the content industry’s approach to business models,” he claimed
Telecommunications analyst, Paul Budde, also criticised current copyright laws and claimed Hollywood was still clinging on to dated intellectual property policies. He commended Senator Conroy’s efforts to bring the two warring industries together to sort out their differences but called for a sound business model to precede any code of practice.
“Based on the situation as is, [a code of conduct] is not going to work,” Budde said. “You need to know what you want to do before you put a code around it.
“The two will have to sit together to trying and organise a way to distribute the content that best serves the public.”
Ultimately, the movie industry will have to be the one that changes its business operations and embrace digital distribution methods, Budde claimed. While Hollywood bigwigs will certainly resist, he expected individual companies would rise up, similarly to what iTunes did with the music industry.
With an election year already underway, there is doubt over whether Senator Conroy will introduce new copyright legislation in the near future if a code of conduct does not materialise.
AFACT was unavailable for comment at the time of publication
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Comments
Anonymous
Judge Cowdroy already said in his judgement that its not a third party's legal responsibility to protect the intellectual property rights of the another party. So ISP's should be kept out of it. They don't have the resources or obligation to do AFACT's legal work for them, anyone can see that.
The sad part of this is the huge resistance to innovation & demand for legitimate digital content that this conflict represents.
Anonymous
Conroy’s urge for piracy code
Conroy is a complete nut job, honestly , he never listens to It professionals, and more over never even bothers to consult the Australian public. Surely in a democratic nation their should be input from both industry and the public on these matters that will affect us all. Sure i understand that their should be some measures taken but Conroy just goes way to far.
Quite frankly i believe that the only persons Mr Conroy consulted are his 10 friends, all of them make believe, and of course only he can see them, and while they may state that they are leading experts in the IT field, the fact that no one else can see or hear them makes their qualifications questionable.
Personally i would like to give senator Conroy some advise for free, from some one that doesn't have make believe friends, Here's my advise Mr Conroy : Please go to the nearest mental hospital and have yourself committed, I'm sure after five or six dozen 3 hour electric shock treatments, you may start to see things clearer.
As for your censorship filter and other Internet and it related plans, quite frankly you suck and need serious help, to senator Conroy on your Internet related plans: AUSTRALIA SAY"S NO I hope that's clear enough for you.
Paul
Conroy just has no place in government. He decides what he wants arbitrarily, based upon his own views and experience, and not judging the opinion of the majority.
In this case, he wanted to kiss up to AFACT, and made statements to that effect supporting them, and now looks stupid... again.
RUDD, GET RID OF CONROY SO I CAN STILL VOTE FOR YOU.
Anonymous
Listen up industry
I long for the day we can all access legitimate digital downloads at a reasonable price.
Jorgen
Internet Control by Regimes of Oppression
The internet does not belong to anyone.
It should not be controlled, or hijacked by governments as it is one of the only truly global resources that humanity can share and contribute to freely.
This factor is what puts fear in the hearts of government, and results in regimes such as Iran, China and AUSTRALIA attempting to both control what innocent people can access and download.
Is it illegal to look at a copy of the Mona Lisa without paying museum entrance fees?
Should it be illegal to watch (not profit from) a copy of a movie without paying cinema entrance fees?
I have boycotted the commercial movie and tv industry (another greedy regime of oppression) and encourage all of my friends to do the same.
Peace
Anonymous
Conroy needs to be fired! he is too much of an imbecile.
Anonymous
Indeed. I know the industry has always been terrified of new technologies (such as the dreaded Video Cassette), but surely it's never before taken them so long to start exploiting one? The demand is there, and the market is largely untapped. What are they thinking?
Simon Shaw
Third party.
There is a third party to enforce copyright law already, and it's the legal system / police.
Asking ISP's to step in as police, jury and judge is just wrong in a democratic society.
You're asking a corporation to enforce laws.
What next?
Power companies cutting your power because they suspect you run a drug farm?
Shopping centres refusing you entry because you look 'shady'?
Corporations already have way too much power over people.
The entertainment industry needs to stop looking for scapegoats and get with the times when it comes to content delivery.
Anonymous
I wait for the day
when I can download a movie in full DVD/blu-ray quality legally at reasonable price and without stinking DRM. Reasonable being less than the price of a DVD/Blu-ray as I fail to see why packaging/freight/middle man markups should remain in the pricing loop in the digital age. Direct to the customer. And by the way half the rubbish I like is not even available from the shops so I am literally forced to download to even be able to get the movie! Where the hell is the back catalogue? It is not in the shops. I can a few items on Amazon etc but most of it 'out of print'. This is the digital age, it should never by 'out of print'!!! If this is the best effort of the movie studios and distributors they deserve a 50% pay cut for being unimaginative idiots.
Just Asking For Trouble
how is he still in politics
A Senator stands up and publicly speaks *against* the defence during a trial, and somehow he is not immediately thrown into jail for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
What has this world come to?
Nothing more Senator Conroy says on the topic should be given the slightest attention, he is *clearly* biased against the internet industry as a whole. For some reason he has decided that ISPs are "bad for society" in general , and he is out to decimate the industry, no matter what.
Anonymous
Removing DRM increases sales by up to 350%. How surprising.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2007/06/20/emis-drm-free-sales-are-working/
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