When will these people get a clue? News.com.au is reporting that the next time you travel with your iPod, those friendly customs officials could pull you aside, slap on the latex and give your iPod a full-body cavity search for pirated music.
The push – which originates from the RIAA in the US – is global in scale, and the Australian government has openly admitted it is partaking in the discussions (although they haven’t agreed to any aspect of the arrangement).
There’s also a lot of confusion over exactly what will be considered as commercial levels of piracy.
If the government is foolish enough to vote this draconian ruling in, I think it would be a good time to join one of those floating communities in the Pacific… How the government can even be considering such a stupid proposition is beyond me.
Mr. Crash
July 28, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I’d buy into the anger over something like this, but seriously – can you say logistical nightmare?
Logical nightmare too – try proving criminality for something like this. Even in a civil suit, that’s still probably going to be a bitch for the RIAA to police anywhere other than the grand old US of A.
That being said, if such a thing ever were enacted – it just seemd like another excuse for some security tard to read my emails, paw through my family photos and take a peek at my work documents under the guise of some *baseless* and ridiculous allegation.
Report PermalinkMartin
July 28, 2008 at 4:02 PM
how can customs officials determine whether certain music on a device like an ipod, creative zen, etc. is pirated or not.
again this is another example of the stupidity of the riaa and the dumb ass scare tatics. like the stupid law over in the usa which is supposed to allow us customs search laptops (under the guise of child porn, pirate software, etc.)
protecting the rights of the people who create the music/movies in the first place is one thing, but treating the people who do the right thing legally like criminals fucked up, and they wonder why sales are down.
ignoring the drought, oil prices, interest rates, etc.
Report PermalinkRadarTrap
July 28, 2008 at 4:15 PM
How would they know if your music has been pirated? Do they expect you to have all your iTunes store receipts on you at all times?
Also, my understanding is that the only music allowed on an iPod is that bought from the iTunes store or Bigpond music store etc. Ripping songs from legitimately bought CDs is a violation of their licence.
If this hairbrained scheme gets off the ground I’ll have to find some other way to keep myself entertained and block out the screaming kiddies on international flights…
I’m sad now
Report Permalink*sniffle*
Rich Mason
July 28, 2008 at 4:16 PM
How on Earth are they going to be able to tell the difference between mp3 files that were ripped from your own CD collection, downloaded from sites such as emusic.com or illegal pirated mp3 files!?
Or are they just going to assume all mp3 files are illegal downloads?
Report PermalinkStevoTheDevo
July 28, 2008 at 4:25 PM
How could they tell what was legal and what wasn’t??
Report PermalinkWill they be requiring you to carry around your personal CD collection to verify you own the dics??
Zen
July 28, 2008 at 4:25 PM
Just rockbox your iPod.
Report PermalinkMolokov
July 28, 2008 at 4:30 PM
This seems nonsensical…
How can they know whether the music on there is pirated or legitimate?
The vast majority of my music on my MP3 player is stuff I bought on CD and ripped, or free legitimate downloads. There’s no way of telling this apart from pirated music – they’re all just simple mp3s, because that’s how I like my music.
So how can they know what’s pirated and what’s not?
Report PermalinkMcBanjo
July 28, 2008 at 5:13 PM
There’s no way to prosecute people. I’m legally allowed to download a copy of a song from a P2P network if I own the CDs. It’s not pirating then.
Report Permalinkc1ockwork
July 28, 2008 at 6:46 PM
Umm, and how exactly would they tell what’s pirated and what’s not? Make me run home and show them my CD collection so they can cross reference all the tracks? FFS….
Report Permalinkmeinrosebud
July 28, 2008 at 6:47 PM
Imagine the time it is going to take to check every file on your 80 Gigabyte iPod. “Sorry sir, your version of ‘Listen like thieves’ seems to be a pirate version… that’ll cost you $18.99 please!”
The introduction of a Music Import Tax will certainly hurt I can tell you! Yeah, 10c per song per boarder crossed plus GST!
Report PermalinkAdam
July 28, 2008 at 9:10 PM
hmm, seems like the government has forgotten about the Privacy Act and numerous other laws that protect Australians from crime – because you don’t fight crime with crime.
Report Permalinkhmm, what’s a commercial quantity, possibly when one person brings in thousands of cd’s in 5 suitcases and there’s large quantities of albums and the likes, that would suspect, but any individual carrying a few songs on their personal media player is not a criminal. Another example of the incompetence of the government..oh wait, what government?
Nozlaf
July 29, 2008 at 12:03 PM
@ Adam
Not sure how you can claim that there is a crime in a lawful search,
it is legal for Customs to search any person and their possessions when entering Australia. one of the list of items to be searched an siezed is Commercial Quantitiy of Pirated material e.g. pirate dvd’s or cd’s
now if your hiding the pirate material on your personal music player why would they not have the right to search it?
and as for your comment of “a few songs…” 40gb music players are common if that player is full is that only a few songs?
Report PermalinkJames K
July 29, 2008 at 1:56 PM
I heard this one on the radio this morning as well. Aside from the obvious (i.e. how they tell if a track is pirated), it seems ridiculous. Transferring pirated music over the Internet is much more efficient than trafficking it like drugs via the airways.
Report Permalinkoh yeah
August 1, 2008 at 5:41 AM
“..your 80 Gigabyte iPod” if it’s 80% full with songs then 99% then owner will be handcuffed and sent to jail. NOBODY who really works can afford to pay $50k to fill this beast (iPOD).
This whole mess is driven “by the corporations and for the corporations of the (former) united states
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