Proposed Aussie law could lock up lip-sychers of copyrighted works

November 30, 2006

Hey picture this.

You are a citizen of Australia, and a year from now you are serving time in an Aussie jail.

You ask your celmate: what are you in for? "Robbin' a bank, mate."

He asks you why you're here.

"Lip-syncing a copyrighted song to my iPod."

Sir.

I am not making this up.

AP Australia notes that sometime next year, the Australian Parliament may consider already-introduced bills that would criminalize beheavior such as a uploading a Web video of you singing to yourself.

You'll be in for a while. Five years in jail, and a fine of $65,000 Australian dollars. That's $50,000 U.S. dollars and we need not translate the time.

Electronic Frintiers Australia- which is analguos to the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the U.S., fears that this Section 132 (3) legislation- which already has been introduced- is agfrotesque extension of traditional copyright infringement statutes.

My favorite (OK, favourite) quote about this controversy is from Brian Fitzgerald, who heads Queensland University's law school.

He said the changes "have the potential to make everyday Australians in homes and businesses across the country into criminals on a scale that we have not witnessed before."

"Imagine a 14-year-old girl videoing herself lip-synching to her favorite pop tune and uploading this to a video sharing Web site like YouTube," Fitzgerald wrote in an Oct. 26 article posted on the Web site of Online Opinion.

"Under the new regime the mere doing of this act has the real potential to lead to a significant fine and if it can be shown that such an act was accompanied by negligence or recklessness, the 14-year-old child could be in even more trouble," he said.