Without immediate and wholesale makeover we are condemning chrome
hearts charm our nation to relentless criminal rip-off and plunder of original IP on an unprecedented scale which will make the current 65 percent rate of consumption being of stolen material look like a pathetically modest nun’s picnic.
If our creators are to stand strong and develop commercial destinies they deserve then the law must change.
Australia needs a louder conversation about this issue. And I believe that conversation should start with these two broad principles:
- the need for responsibility for stopping piracy to lie where it should; and
- the need for mitigations that actually dissuade people from stealing other people’s intellectual property be it effective action by ISPs against inveterate illegal down loaders or laws that work in the digital age.
This is an issue for which few want to say “I am responsible for my own behaviour”. The main perpetrators, whilst usually acknowledging the illegality of what they do, want to chrome
hearts clothing sale put the blame elsewhere.
Some don’t care, having no moral code at all, or kid themselves that they’re modern-day Robin Hood heroes. Robbin, yes. Hoods, yes. Heroes, no!
Others say it’s a victimless crime, although thanks to public education efforts, including the excellent work of IPAF, that mistaken view is turning around.
Seven out of ten illegal downloaders say they download illegally because there are few legal alternatives. I guess they mustn’t have heard of catch-up TV, or iTunes, or Foxtel, or DVD rentals, or taking their girlfriend out to the movies.
Individuals must take responsibility for their own illegal behaviour—and greater education campaigns will assist that. But Internet Service Providers must take responsibility too to tackle the problem of repeat offenders who use their networks.
IPAF consumer research has found 73 percent say they would stop if that chrome
hearts t shirts notification came with a threat to slow down or halt downloading if their illegal downloading continued.
To my mind this constitutes a powerful and effective deterrent that Australia should now be contemplating. And it meets the second principle I mentioned just now−−that any approach to digital copyright protection needs to capture all forms of piracy on the net and have effective mitigations and penalties.
