Google Explains How To Kill The Internet In Australia: Just Make Proposed Changes To Copyright Laws
from the just-what-everyone-didn't-need dept
Down in Australia they've been looking at updating their copyright laws to catch up to the digital age (read: to make the laws more favorable for an entertainment industry that refuses to adjust to the market), but seem to be doing so in a way that pretty much guarantees the opposite would occur. For example, one of the changes would effectively require search engines to ask permission of every web page they indexed. It's one of those "sounds good in theory" ideas that is ridiculous in practice, and would pretty much make it impossible to have a search engine in Australia. Google has submitted their own take on this law, explaining why it would push Australia into "pre-internet" days. This is the type of lawmaking that happens when lawmakers rely too much on a single industry (in this case, the entertainment industry) to detail the "problems" of the internet. It doesn't take into account what's really going on, or the fact that the complaining industry needs to learn how to adjust to the new technology -- not beg for laws that hold back the technology.
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Well, you get the picture.
Don't underestimate any country's mentally retarded politicians.
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Just plain stupid
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Re: Just plain stupid
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Makes pefect sense
This way you get indexed only if you want to, and the search engines enjoy a sort of protection from idiotic claims.
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God damnit
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Since when is google the internet?
To the latter, google is the dot-com that could. The ultimate triumph of the new economy over the old. The promise of a never-ending wealth engine powered by synergies of combining content producers and consumers. Go go gooooogle!
To the former, google and advertising-funded-searching is just the most recent manifestation of a much larger cultural information structure that reinvents itself every decade or so as those who produce information adapt to the ever evolving market defined by the tastes of those that consume it.
If google can't index others content without their permission, some pretty straightforward deals will be made and someone will make some money getting the content people want will get to those who want it. If google chooses not to be that person then someone else will, life will continue and the internet will keep humming along as it has for the past 30+ years.
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Hahahahah... NO.
And if their computer leaves a copy of the images downloaded in it's cache then they can be dragged off to prison for copyright infringement.
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It would make no difference
However politicians think they can make rules without really being aware on the effects of the laws.
A new law in Greece banned accidentally (?) all electronic & electromechanical games throughout the country and that included game consoles, computers (in a way) and the lot!
Needless to say the law was never pursued.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,57305,00.html
for more info.
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How would they accomplish this?
Sure they could track down whois information for domains in order to contact, but what about services that offer web hosting without a personal domain?
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If people don't want their sites indexed.
This isn't hard to do.
Has everybody forgotten about robots.txt?
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robots.txt
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thank you anon
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Another silly law, eh? Shades of Belgium...
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Coming soon to US
It's these type of narrowminded ideas that waste time and will get nowhere in the end. It doesn't matter about robots.txt to some people, they want a law on the books.
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Because it makes me feel special and like some one cares but I have no type of counter so when no one views it I will not feel bad about my self
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Re:
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we already have this
Is it not safe to assume that if I haven't said "don't index me" that I'm ok with you indexing me?
It works, really!! Why haven't any of these belgiums or australians heard of it?
Ignorance of the law is no excuse in a criminal case, so ignorance of robots.txt shouldn't be an excuse here either.
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WTH?!
And how exactly does this benefit the entertainment industry?
I'm confused ... *sigh*
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a new spin
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Ridiculous
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Idiots
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Australian Politicians
There was a totally idiotic attempt to xcensor the net a fe years ago and, along with tis madness, they are also planning to Tax Aussies who earn linden $$ on Second Life.
Plainly things are just so perfect here that these guys have nothing better to do than come up with laws that make netizens go hyukhyukhyuk
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