August 22, 2002

7:19 AM

American movie, recording and software executives could be prohibited from entering Australia or extradited to face criminal charges if a copyright protection bill before the US Congress passes into law.
posted by Kellydamnit (10 comments total)

Sounds like it would be hard to link these executives with the invasion of a particular PC. The dirty work will probably be handled by people far removed from the recording companies themselves. But the article spotlights the absurdity of the Berman bill, which is a very good thing.
posted by Triplanetary at 7:32 AM on August 22, 2002

Look people, stop stealing music. This crap is going to lead us in to WWIII with Australia, and you KNOW we don't want that. Enough of your "the music industry steals from performers, so we should steal from them" junk.
Whine all the way to the music store and buy a damn CD, for Christ's sake.
If you don't, Australia is going to NUKE us for sure. Remember folks, if you download MP3's, the terrorists have already won.
posted by bradth27 at 7:38 AM on August 22, 2002

What I found strange was that it doesn't seem to be discussed anywhere else. There wasn't a single US news source that even mentioned the Berman bill conflicting with foreign laws. That article is a couple weeks old, too, so at this point it looks as though the US media has decided not to cover it, as opposed to simply not covering it _yet_.
posted by Kellydamnit at 7:48 AM on August 22, 2002

Give em The Boot.
posted by gottabefunky at 7:58 AM on August 22, 2002

heh. george lucas better hurry up and finish that last movie then. :)
posted by reb at 8:28 AM on August 22, 2002

Kellydamnit, it was discussed in the news last week in many (tech industry) sources. It was huge news. I could have sworn I already saw it here.
posted by mathowie at 9:25 AM on August 22, 2002

Here's a cnet article from August 6 about the issue.
posted by benjh at 9:43 AM on August 22, 2002

It would be interesting if Australia also extended this to include conspiracy and aiding & abetting. That way they could indict every congressman who voted for the law, not to mention the person who signed it into effect.
posted by joaquim at 11:28 AM on August 22, 2002

It would be interesting if Australia also extended this to include conspiracy and aiding & abetting.

Well, you can prosecute not just the people who do the hacking, but their bosses, the company CEO, and anyone else involved.

As the US and Aus have extradition treaties, if you were able to prove that an RIAA member hacked into your computer, you could go to the Feds here and start legal prosecution against RIAA members. The US government would then have to make a choice - extradite them on Aus law or protect them under US law.

I don't even think you need to take the time to blink to realise what the US will do.

Heaven forbid an RIAA officer take a step on Aus soil after that, though.
posted by Neale at 5:46 PM on August 22, 2002

Kellydamnit, it was discussed in the news last week in many (tech industry) sources. It was huge news. I could have sworn I already saw it here.


My apologies, then, I didn't realize that. I googled for it a few different ways, but I must have missed those. :/
posted by Kellydamnit at 6:32 AM on August 23, 2002