Studios win Australian piracy victory
Australian film and music studios have claimed a victory in their war against copyright offenses, with a Sydney man convicted for selling pirated content last week.
Yong Hong Lin, owner of a music and movie store in Eastwood, Sydney, was found guilty of 15 copyright offenses in Sydney's District Court last week, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) and Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) announced in a statement distributed Monday. Lin is scheduled to be sentenced on August 21.
The jury acquitted Lin of 16 of the 31 offenses he was initially charged with.
Police had raided Lin's facility on February 27, the copyright organizations said, finding more than 16,000 pirated music and movie discs offered for sale. Some were allegedly imported from China, and some burned locally.
AFACT and MIPI said the charges were the "first copyright matters to proceed on indictment and be heard before a jury" in Australia. "Mr Lin has been judged by 12 of his fellow Australians and they have found his conduct to be criminal; now he must accept the consequences," said MIPI investigations manager Dean Mitchell.
Neil Gane, AFACT director of operations, said pirates should be in "no doubt" that what he called their criminal actions would be thoroughly investigated, shut down by police, and judged in court.
The copyright duo said criminal penalties for copyright infringement were up to $60,500 and five years imprisonment per offense for individuals, and up to $302,500 for corporations.
Renai LeMai of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.
A NON-STORY! Unless you're the guy from Eastwood, of course!
If this type of thing is allowed to go unchecked, there simply would be no movies produced. Period. Music would live on because all it takes is a few people and a few instruments to make it, but movies would die. They are simply far too expensive to make if there is no way to recoup that money. Do you want to live without movies at all? Not everyone does.
You're right. This isn't about the evil RIAA or MPAA (and they ARE evil). It's about some wanker (that's what we call them in Australia) importing DVD's for profit.
People take the corporation-bashing route so quickly. Did no one see Team America? You can't hate them just because they're "corporationy".
Although i agree it is wrong to sell/profit from copyrighted material, I do not see it as a massive impact offence to the community at large where Australian citizens are being harmed greatly by it. There is a potential for harm, yes, but it isn't actually there at this point in time. My concern, I suppose, is that if organisations like the RIAA/MPAA are representing the 'community' in this, then we should all be concerned indeed as they are clearly biased with an agenda - which is not the basis for justice. Their views should be heard when ascertaining the level of harm, yes, but they were not directly stolen from (indeed they were infringed upon, not stolen from) which is quite different.
Renai - can you keep us in the loop regarding the sentencing result please?
It seems to have been an ongoing business, so he had sold what, hundreds of thousands of dollars of merchandise? If he black-bagged a hundred grand of jewelry out of a store in the middle of the night, I'd expect him to be put away for a while, and have to make restitution, right?
The goal is a punishment to fit the crime. In other words he (in my view) should serve less time than somenone who committed a violent crime.
Further, it's an indirect crime. He didn't break into your vault. So I'd have hime serve less time than someone who did break into your vault.
Lastly If I'm selling "pirated materials" in good faith meaning I think I'm legit becasue I was trying to be legit. There is no crime on my part. This may or may not be the case with his Asian copies.
Business model: making **** and market it as gold
Entertainment industry has VERY favorable laws to protect its existing business model because they are fist-deep into lawmaking.
The tendency is to make gazillion $ budget films with movie stars paid 10-15 M$ and colossal marketing budgets because you need to milk the movie to the last drop to get even.
Three quarters of movies made add nothing to the artistic and cultural richness of mankind.
Copyright: More than it is
Artistic copyright is actually a very scam. Lifesaving pharmacy or invetntions that would take the world out of the dark ages forever, can be protected at great cost (per country) by a patent for 10 years. Invent a story and its copyrighted for 50 years, free of charge. AND, you can at no extra cost put anything under that umbrella : cost of making the movie, the distribution, the marketing the gadgets etc, as if they are part of the original idea. The fact that only 10 cents max of the salesprice of the DVD go to the invertor of the story is omitted.
The downloader does not need the marketing, nor the distribution of the dvd etc. And in many countries the blank CD/DVD contains a copyright charge when bought. Who is stealing from who here?
Comparing evil
If copyright infringement is punished more severely then bankrobbery , fraud tax evasion or other "economical fraud", something is wrong (and I am deliberately not mentioning violent crimes against people, which are punished rediculeously little.
/rant
- by pauldb May 27, 2009 10:32 AM PDT
- How one does the comparison to this is the key to understanding it. If you use the example of the diamond being stolen as a poster did, you are wrong. That diamond cannot be replaced or duplicated. It is the only one that exists. By making an exact glass copy of that diamond it does not diminish it's value. The buyer of the glass knock off is never going to be the buyer of the real diamond. Even if a million glass versions are sold the real diamond still has it's original value. The glass version is identical in every aspect and cannot be distinguished except by a trained eye.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(20 Comments)In this case, nothing was stolen. No physical robbery occurred. In effect a glass copy was made and sold to buyers who otherwise would never have purchased the original. No one was harmed. When a clothing designer creates a couture dress for an Oscar evening and 10 days later you can buy it from Walmart for $29 it is perfectly legal.
Movie profits have never been higher. The problem with music has nothing to do with piracy and everything to do with content. We no longer have to buy the same song anymore. My duplicate copies of LP's, tape, and Cd's and yours are proof. For a large part of the population, music died many years ago and that is a fact.