Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Copyright - time for us to make a stand?

If you enjoy listening to music (and who doesn't) then the issue of copyright affects you on a daily basis.

If you own a business then you also need to be very aware of how copyright law might affect you -- because there are many areas where you can find yourself in breach of the provisions of the Act, often without knowing it.

Take for example the small car repair business with two employees...

There are many small garages where a qualified mechanic and his apprentice toil away changing oil, replacing filters, adjusting brakes and performing minor service-work on customers' cars.

How on earth could copyright apply to such a business?

Well read this report and weep.

Don't be tempted to think "oh, but this is just the UK where there are too many bureaucrats and jobsworths anyway, because the same laws apply right here in NZ.

Yes, that's right -- if you run a business where the public might possibly hear the radio or CD player that's running for your own benefit, you owe money to APRA and probably some other "rights management" group for the privilege.

This is utter lunacy and a gross corruption of the intention of copyright.

How crazy is it that if a customer pulls their car into the workshop of that car-service business with their car radio turned off then, because they could hear the workshop radio, that business needs to pay APRA for the right to listen to the music being broadcast. However, if that very same customer has their car radio on and tuned to the same station -- no infringement is committed, despite the fact it is *exactly* the same broadcast they're hearing -- but from their own car radio.

What the?

It gets better...

Let's say you've taken a fancy to a contemporary Kiwi pop song...

You've heard it on the radio (which has to pay for the right to broadcast that music) so you go out and buy a copy of the track.

On the way home, you call into a cafe for a quick espresso and the same track is playing on the radio that plays quietly in the background.

The IP owner has now been paid three times for the same track that you're listening too...

Firstly, they've been paid by the radio station for the right to broadcast.

Secondly, they've been paid by *you*, when you purchased the track.

Thirdly, they've been paid by the cafe owner who has to fork out $ to APRA.

What's more, if you've bought that track on CD and then decide to download an MP3 copy from the Net to use on your media-player (because you don't know how to rip that CD) then you'll likely get pinged again under the SkyNet law and pay a fourth time -- with huge penalties.

Now, like most people, I like music -- but not that much.

I'm happy for those who create enjoyable music to be paid for their efforts -- but only once per track per consumer.

The way I look at it -- if the music owners don't want people playing it in their place of work without paying then the solution is simple: don't allow it to be broadcast on the radio -- or perhaps only allow the sale of radios without speakers -- earplugs only perhaps?

We have no control over what RF energy passes through the ether that surrounds us and it could be argued that broadcasters commit an act of trespass by firing their EM signals through our property and premises. Just as I can not use my neighbour's property without permission and payment, nor should a broadcaster be entitled to riddle my body with their transmissions with impunity -- or at least I ought have the right to do what I want with those transmissions that pass through me and my radios.

Given the radical copyright reforms that will doubtless follow our signing of the TPPA, surely it's time for Kiwis to stand up and demand that government goes back to the drawing board in respect to the "greed creep" that we've seen in respect to IP owners rights through copyright law.

If it's not fair, people will ignore copyright law and a law which is ignored is worse than no law at all.

Please visit the sponsor!

Have your say on this...

PERMALINK to this column

Oh, and don't forget today's sci/tech news headlines

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font