Posted on 09/14/2006 10:19:35 PM PDT by fishhound
Users of modchipped gaming consoles could face fines of thousands of dollars when new copyright protection laws are introduced this year by the Federal Government.
The new laws, which were released in draft form last week, are being introduced to honour Australia's free trade agreement obligations with the US, and will effectively prohibit the use of devices and services designed to circumvent copy control technological protection measures (TPMs).
Until now, it has only been illegal to distribute or sell services or devices seeking to disable or override copy control technologies, but now users of such tools will also fall foul of the law once the legislation is introduced later this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at smh.com.au ...
"Step away from the X-Box."
Can someone tell me, is this not the same idea of hacking that brought about Linux? I know Linux involved the kernal but I assume the same meaning here.
This is kind of a stiff penalty for some kid to pay for tricking out his game.
Probably see similar fines for ownership/use of RFID readers.
What a joke. Nobody will be caught except by jealous girlfriends.
I think much of this traces back to when it was made illegal to own a receiver that would receive cell phone frequencies. It crossed a long standing line of freedom and has opened a flood of other laws that go down the same path.
Australia is coming from a much stricter copyright regime than the US. IPods and mp3 players are still technically illegal if they are sold as music copying devices for instance.
ISP's in AU wil be held uner greater scrutiny than China's ISps once this new regime is signed into law.
Tech firms like Sandvine, BigChampagne and BayTSP will be contracted by Aussie ISPs owned by media groups to sniff out illegal p2p and hacked game servers there.
This is unenforceable of course, you can't concurrently have a national goal to recruit new immigrants in high tech fields and sign laws illegalizing them to import/buy mod hardware and software as a side business/hobby.
FairTax advocates in the US should take head, the value added tax regime in AU is THE main tool to be used by the government to enforce this new law.
What a joke. Nobody will be caught except by jealous girlfriends.
Unfortunately, the concept came from our government, or rather their copyright cartel supporters. We basically forced Australia to do this, it's not only we who like to give up our sovereignty when making treaties.
For instance, if you go to Project Gutenberg Australia, you can download the following:
Of course, downloading any of the above would be illegal for U.S. citizens, because our legislature has been properly bought and paid for by the likes of Disney Inc, but it is perfectly legal in AU, at least for now.
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