Yesterday, the Australian House of Representatives’
Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications handed down its report into IT pricing in Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-lif...729-2qtxn.html
The report was prompted by the fact that Australians pay significantly higher amounts for electronically distributed goods, with Microsoft software and songs on iTunes costing 66% more in Australia than the US. Microsoft, Adobe and Apple were all witnesses before the committee and gave testimony on why they consider the price difference to be justified.
Australian Courts have consistently ruled that region coding and other similar geo-restrictions are not copyright protection devices, but market protection devices. The Standing Committee’s has built on that history by recommending greater consumer entitlement to circumvent geo-restrictions.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_...ing/report.htm
Below are the recommendations of most interest (my paraphrasing, see the report for the full recommendations).
- The Copyright Act be amended to clarify right to circumvent technological protection measures that control geographic market segmentation.
- Australian consumers be educated as to the extent to which they may circumvent geoblocking mechanisms and the tools and techniques which they may use to do so.
- The Australian Government consider
- creating a ‘right of resale’ in relation to digitally distributed content
- clarifying ‘fair use’ rights
- restricting vendors’ ability to ‘lock’ digital content into a particular ecosystem.
- The Australian Government consider enacting a ban on geoblocking as an option of last resort.
- The Australian Government investigate amending the Competition and Consumer Act so that contracts which seek to enforce geoblocking are considered void.
JL
Related:
Aussie regulator: E-book price fixing is not our problem
[image:
Flickr]