Ello...

Well I was bored this fine Wednesday night and decided to look into the copyright laws of my country in some detail for once . Since I learnt a lot I was really hoping to get peoples opinions of the laws in their own country - yeah yeah I know I can look up specifics myself but I am really interested in your opinions of your own local laws, rather than all the exact legalese.

Anyway, believe it or not the thoughts I had about our laws are that they are quite reasonable (although there are caveats as always). But a very brief overview of rights follows:

• It is legal for people to tape their favourite TV or radio program and play it at another time or place

• We have legal ‘format shifting’ of material such as music, newspapers or books – meaning for example people can put their CD collection onto Digital Audio players, or convert a text book into an e book for personal use

• Schools, universities, libraries and other cultural institutions can use copyright material for non-commercial purposes (I'm pretty sure this is almost universal)

• exceptions for people with disabilities to allow access to copyright materials

• It is legal to use copyrighted material for any parody or satire (think this is also pretty much universal?)

• It's also legal for a subscriber of a pay tv service to record broadcast programs regardless of other release schedules. (As long as it is not publicly rebroadcast of course)

Oh, Some interesting wordings appeared in the FAQ, for example:


So does that mean If I have a protected CD and was denied the ability to copy it because of ondisc protection I can then claim the manufacturer is denying me my basic rights? I'll have to look into that further... my guess is no based off what I have seen.


That also seems strange, I can make a copy in any format I want as long as it is not the original - I use ogg vorbis for lossy and FLAC for lossless so I'm fine, but if I make a copy in the same format I am automatically breaking a law??? weird...

So everybody, what do you think of the copyright system in your country? Is it actually fair or does it tend to benefit the large corporations? Are the fines appropriate or unrealistic given the 'crime'?

Cheers...

Very interesting topic

In my country(The Netherlands) I think we have quite a good policy as well; You can download anything you want. You're just not allowed to upload it.
You can also copy anything you want as long as it is for educational or home use purpose.

This is allowed because there is a tax on all data carrier. Well actually only cd-rom's etc. not hard drive's or mp-3 players. The money is than divided over lot's of artists by foundation home copy, or stichting de Thuiskopie. I think this is a fair deal because this way artists also earn some money.

At the moment there is a discussion going on whether this is the right way to let everybody pay. There have been several symposia about this. They were organized by ECP.nl, the main government organization concerned with "internet for consumers". There ought to be some reports out on the internet, but I have to look them up. In the mean time you could probably find them yourselves by looking for symposium digitale content 3 on ECP.nl or just google. It's quite interesting because in the discussion people from all kinds of organization are involved. (Warner Bros, Stichting de Thuiskopie, Xs4All, the government. But also a blogging musician, lawyers and the dutch youth(me )

P.s. I think it's interersting most for those of you speaking Dutch because it was in Dutch. There was an English presentation though and there might be a couple of English reports.

Edit: I found the report of the symposium. You can read it here: http://www.ecp.nl/nieuws/id=101303/Verslag_Symposium_Digitale_Content_III.html?PHPSESSID=62cc5cc71d221980bdd812c7febbd886 (it's in dutch)

Does that include socially disabled too ?

Copyright in Germany
What it is:

• belongs to private, not to commercial law (which would be patent or trademark law)
  
• it should protect cultural goods
  
• creator has the rights to decide wheather an when he publishes his good
  
• 70 years after the death of the creator it is common property
  
• quotes
  
  • "Großzitat" (ger, sth. like big quote): complete quote of a copyright text, you only may do that with scientific work
    
  • "Kleinzitat" (ger, little quote): partly quotation of a work, always allowed
    
  
  
• copyright is not "transferable" (from the creator to another person)
  

What you may do if you have the copyright

• you have to gain access to the good from the owner, if you need it for replication
  
• you have to get 5% of the selling price (if its Visual arts) and you have a right to know who has bought your good
  

What you may do without having the copyright

• you may make backups It depends on the content how long you may have the backups. (German Wiki)
  
• if your a school or church: you may use collections of creations, may you have to inform the creator. The creator may forbid you to use it.
  
• if your a school, you may use content in your schools' broadcasts
  
• exceptions for people with disabilities to allow access to copyright materials
  
• I'm quite sure you may save movies and music from the tv / radio and collect them, but you may not distribute the files and you have to delete them after 5 years or sth. like that
  

What you may not do and the punishments:

• if you make a copyright although it is not your good, you can get a fine or be imprisoned for up to 3 years
  
• even if you modify the content, the creator has the copyright
  
• if you distribute files or something to crack copyright protections (nero cracks copyright protections ... at least mine) you can get a fine up to 100,000 € or one year imprisoment (I'd chose the imprisonment ... who earns 100,000 € in a year??? Especially in germany, where social contributions are one of the highest in the world)
  

for germans: Wiki

Thankyou very much for the succinct replies fellas.. much appreciated. It's exactly what I was after without having to trawl though dozens of pages of legal wording

A shame there is no response from the UK, Singapore or Vietnam though (those in question, I'm looking at you )

Oh don't mind me - I'll post when I have a little more time. I've got *lots* to complain about.

Hmm in Vietnam there are laws to protect copyright but here are some facts:
- You can get a Vista DVD at every shop for about $1.
- If you write a decent desktop/mobile app you'll see it in every CD shop soon enough, and maybe with a different author
- clip.vn is a vietnamese version of youtube, and maybe you can watch all the hot stuffs there.
- If you get your thesis printed/photocopied at a printing shop maybe next year someone else will graduate with it