Recent changes to Australian law has meant much of this is already illegal. But I guess if it is legal elsewhere than it’s more likely to change here sometime in the future than if it was illegal. Crap crap crap, sick of all this. I’ve thought for years that the current IP rights domain is very much like the Wild West of the 1800s, it comes down to how big you are. Big companies are much better placed at colonising the newly opened spaces than small individuals. So I’m really glad that people are starting use terms like “land grab” because it really captures the fact that these rights are really huge gift windfalls for IP owners.

Podcasters unite to challenge copyright landgrab - PC Magazine

“A new broadcasting right proposed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo) is being opposed by freedom organisation the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The Broadcast Treaty seeks to allow 50 years of copyright-like control over the content of broadcasts, even when the broadcaster has no copyright in what it shows, according to the EFF. The campaign group is urging podcasters to sign a letter opposing the treaty being extended to cover the internet. A TV channel broadcasting your Creative Commons-licensed movie could legally demand that no one record or redistribute it, and sue anyone who does,” explained the EFF. TV companies could use their new rights to go after TiVo or MythTV for daring to let you skip advertisements or record programmes in DRM-free formats.”

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