The Associated Press [via Excite] reported that Norway's parliament
on Friday proposed a new copyright law to make it illegal for Norwegians to copy songs from their own CDs onto MP3 players, but legal to do so for making a CD duplicate.
The proposal, intended to bring Norway's law in line with European Union rules, drew immediate praise from the music and film industry as well as criticism from opponents....
The new proposal would allow fines and a maximum penalty of three years in prison for violating copyrights and engaging in computer piracy.
The amendment, which requires parliament's approval, would make it illegal to crack security codes on DVD and CDs or to provide software or hardware for doing so, a news release said. It would still be legal for a person to make a copy of their own CD or DVD for private use, even if that means cracking the code, as long as it was being copied onto the same digital medium and not onto another one.
Another attempt to use the rule of law to put the digital genie back in the bottle. As an author who receives royalties (small though they be), I do believe that copyright is beneficial and should be enforced. Through technology and business models. More on this theme later.
[A selection of Munch's work is online at the Munch Museet; one version of "the scream" is here.]
