Carl Cerecke, 2004-07-08 09:25:27: > Timothy Musson wrote: > >On Radio NZ this morning (2004-07-08), just after 10 AM, there'll be > >a short item about the upcoming changes to copyright law in NZ. > Would somebody like to post a summary for those of us without radios?
Linda Clark hosted a short discussion between Judith Tizard (Associate Minister of Commerce) and Michael Glading (President of the Recording Industry Association of NZ, and also the Managing Director of Sony Music NZ). In short: Copyright law in NZ doesn't currently allow "format shifting". (So, for example, if you buy a music CD, you can't copy tracks from it onto your iPod, or computer hard drive, etc.) The government is heading towards changing copyright law to allow format shifting for personal use. The music industry says this will encourage "piracy". Michael argued that the music industry is not interested in taking legal action against people who do format shifting for personal use, and so a law change is not necessary. He suggested that we should just wait, because technological solutions are on the way (...I presume he meant things like DRM, but he wasn't pushed to explain). Judith's position was that the Recording Industry's arguments don't hold an awful lot of water, and that the law change will probably go ahead, though the Recording Industry still has time to change her mind. All three people admitted to having copied music to tape in the past. That's what I remember. Letters of support for law change would probably be a good idea right about now. Tim -- Timothy Musson - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~trmusson/
