The Internet Industry Assocation has written a news release entitled “New Copyright Laws Risk Criminalising Everyday Australians“. They’ve also released some risk analyses for teenagers, families, small business and industry.

I’m a liberal person and I’m not all too happy about these new copyright laws, despite the new freedoms that academic institutions (and thus academic libraries) will enjoy. My previous investigation of this legislation has made me believe that the government is just legalising current baby boomer practices, like recording TV shows on a video cassette, whilst outlawing recording a TV broadcast on a computer equipped with a tuner card and then burning that recording to DVD.

My general dislike of the legislation aside, what interests me the most is the line:

“The US Free Trade Agreement does not require Australia to go down this path, and neither US nor European law contain such far reaching measures. We at a total loss to understand how this policy has developed, who is behind it and why there is such haste in enacting it into law – with little if any public debate.”

This goes against what I’ve been told in the past. Newspapers have been adamant that these laws are a requirement of the FTA with the US. Are there any copyright/legal junkies that know exactly what’s going on?

To be honest, I imagine that the police won’t enforce some breaches of the legislation, like families lustily singing “Happy Birthday” in parks. What’s the point of having legislation that isn’t enforced?