Oz "Victory" Against Pirates - MEAA

Originally published here.


I’ve just recieved the latest newsletter from my union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance.

Yes, I'm secretly a creative type, and when I'm not overseeing an encryption upgrade into the Australian banking network, I design the lighting for live theatre shows.

I've worked in most of the theatres in Sydney, from the back rooms of pubs to the Sydney Opera House, and I'll write about that some other time.

Meanwhile, the Alliance informs me there’s been "A Victory Against Pirates" and goes on to detail how "the findings in a major music piracy case are a victory for all industries facing copyright infringements, including film and TV."

Can you guess what this is all about? I thought you could.

It’s the mp3s4free.net case where the Federal Court in Sydney found that linking to pirated material is infringement of copyright under Australian law.

Setting aside the fact that Google is probably illegal under the court's definition of linking (and so is p2pnet, come to that) I wonder if the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has thought this through carefully enough?

Of course I agree with Michael Kerin from ARIA's Music Industry Piracy Investigations that this is very "significant" for the Australian music industry.

The problem is, getting people to listen to Australian music is damned hard, especially since the introduction of poker machines killed off so many live music venues in Sydney a few years ago.

So let's look at the state of Aussie music:

• Reduction in live music venues
• Reduction in number of titles released annualy
• Reduction in number of record company contracts with artists
• Increased legislation relating to infringement of intelectual property
• Increased enforcement of IP law
• Increased sales of digital music players (1,000% increase over 12 months)
• Lack of legal download sites
• High prices on downloaded tracks (~AUD$1.89)
• Severe incompatabilities between digital music players and available downloads

How are we doing so far? Add all those factors together and things start to look pretty bleak down here in Oz.

We can't easily see live music.

We can't find a great number of titles to choose from because they're not being made.

We've all got the hardware to play our music, but can't afford to buy the DRM-wrapped tracks.

To top it all off, we can now expect to get a battering from the courts if we dare to provide people with a few digital choices to expand their musical horizons.

This is indeed a victory for Australian music.

A Pyrrhic victory.

Thankfully I have caring, thoughtful union to look after me.