ITunes is Illegal: Why copyright laws need a drastic reformation
(Republish with translation from: Cultured Vultures, "iTunes is Illegal: Why Copyright Laws Need a Drastic Overhaul", By Liam Soutar at Music, News, Opinion, August 7, 2015)
As unlikely as it may be that anyone could ever be arrested for importing musics to iTunes from a CD, however, this is no longer impossible. New copyright laws in the UK actually make one of the most common methods of using iTunes illegal.
The Torrent Freak reported this crazy technical detail on Thursday 6 August 2015. What's even more strange is that the law is not a new long, tedious bill, nor does it accidentally contain a hole escaping from a loose corrector.
The decision to criminalize the transfer of copyright material is, in fact, an amendment to the law by the Intellectual Property Office, IPO (Office of Intellectual Property).
It was only last year copying files for private use became legal. But now, as part of the government's efforts to forbid everything -the always everything but this decision has been overturned.
source: wired.co.uk
This should be the least of our worries about copyright law because the new government proposals could make child sexual abuse and copyright infringements result in a ten-year prison sentence. Let's look at it a little closer:
Prisoner A.: "Why are you inside?"
Prisoner B.: "For pedophilia. You;"
Prisoner A.: "To copy an One Direction album to iTunes".
Prisoner B.: "You're a monster!"
This is probably not the best example, since it is a pleasure to lock someone behind bars because they hear One Direction!
The principle, however, is totally paranoid. OR Open Rights Group (ORG) is a group among many other groups that have criticized the bad discrimination included in the new proposal between file sharing tactics and those who intend to take advantage of copyright infringement.
In a statement on her website, ORG said: "IPO proposals could mean that people who share their links and files online without any financial benefit could be more severely punished than criminals who commit theft who has a maximum sentence of seven years".
It is also just the last piece of legislation that highlights the ridiculous usurpation of lobbying for copyright.
"It's interesting to see how far supporters of the status quo will go"Says Loz Kaye, his former leader Pirate Party UK (British Pirates Party) and also composer and musician.
Loz Kaye
Source: partiesonthefringe.wordpress.com
Back in 2012, the Pirate Party had set up a proxy for the Pirate bay in response to his ban in the Netherlands. Some time ago, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) - the UK Phonographic Trade Union - tried and tested the power of its lawyers to the full extent.
"This was a political decision and of course it was almost the only proxy that existed"Loz remembers. "What he concludes was that BPI threatened to go to me, our Board of Directors and the IT Chief in the Supreme Court - personally - for the proxy".
After legal advice, the party lowered the proxy. "The reality was that BPI literally wanted to ruin me and the rest of the Party personally. It was clear that all this could ruin our political project, as we would have to go into court trials for months, perhaps for years, and fight constantly".
The reason behind the party's decision to run the proxy is deeply rooted in the raison d'être of the Internet itself.
"The big problem is that at the time of the internet there is no way to stop copying, sharing, sharing, broadcasting and abundance. This is the reason for existence and what is meant to do the internet"Loz continues,"so it doesn't make sense to support the idea of monetizing access to content instead of rewarding actual work. More generally, we don't give anyone, any other type of worker, income from work they once did, decades after their death. This all makes no sense".
And these attempts to restrict access to content are not limited to movies and music files, however. As mentioned in report by Julia Reda on the EU's copyright, explained recently, even public spaces and monuments are subject to copyright. The "Freedom of Panorama" layout, which allows people to take pictures and videos in public buildings, has recently been put under threat.
Julia Reda
Source: livreshebdo.fr
Again, almost as crazy as you are to be jailed for the use of iTunes, so crazy is his idea to go for a photo of the Eiffel Tower. You should think twice before taking a selfie with me background a public building!
The simple truth is that the "big content" lobby (big content) falsely claims to be the sole voice of artists and the creative industries. Big companies have unfortunately appropriated intellectual property laws as they react when they see their profits threatened time after time by industry innovators out there (think Napster, the Pirate Bay) - whose interests lie beyond financial gain - from helping artists and creators, as their purpose should be.
