Copyright Infringement

I do not agree that people should be able to download music and films for free as this would be a breach of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). This is of course unless it is 70 years after the artist’s death at which the copyright duration would have elapsed (s33-34) or if the artist gave permission for this to happen.

The first test for a breach under the act is if the work was reproduced without permission which is under s36(1). This test considers if there has been a reproduction of major part of the work. The people sharing these files on the internet have are merely reproducing the entire file for people to download.

In addition by posting links online these people are communicating the work to the public. This is also a violation of the act under s36(1) as well. Moreover 3^rd party peer-to-peer sharing services may also be under breach of s112E if found to be authorising infringement by not filtering out copyright material and promoting copyright behaviour as was found in the Kazaa case.

Personally, many of my friends have received warnings from companies to stop downloading illegally. Some have even received multiple warnings, I on the other hand believe it is not worth the risk and therefore I don’t do it.

So in conclusion, it is quite clear that downloading music and films for free is in breach of the Copyright Act 1968 (cth) unless exempt from the act or permission was given from the owner.

References:

Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Retrieved from: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/

Additional Readings:

This is a letter from a company telling the user to stop downloading illegally, much akin to the one my friend received:
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbnid=W6hDpcdfgU9fHM:&imgrefurl=http://www.unmediated.org/archives/2006/04/man_receives_wa_1.php&docid=iVlmn97u1o_mpM&imgurl=http://tallin.wordpress.com/files/2006/04/Charter%252520Letter%252520-%252520Part%2525201.jpg&w=1142&h=1472&ei=VTrLT-6SJpGhiQedrLXOBg&zoom=1&biw=1647&bih=938