Australian entrepreneur Gregory Moore says he will ditch his plans for putting 2000 CD-copying machines, known as the 'Little Ripper', into public places in the face of fierce legal opposition from the music industry. Our thanks goes to 'man' for submitting this news:
Moore believed he could calculate and pay royalties to copyright holders whether they signed an agreement or not. He published an advertisement stating his intentions, and Music Industry Piracy Investigation (MIPI) took out injunctions to stop him going ahead. |
The case involves two kinds of copyright: copyright for the authors of music; and for its performers. Music publishers typically have interests in both kind of copyright, often through separate companies.
Moore believed he could make the machines legal by simply calculating what was owed to copyright holders and paying them. "The Copyright Act provides that if you're going to pay the royalties, you can insist on permission from the artist," he says.
However, he now accepts that the holder of the author's copyright - often the music companies - can refuse to accept payments. Moore says he has always been acting in good faith, and has tried to pay the copyright owners for their work. But he felt that going ahead with the case would only be giving the industry a test case at his expense.
So no public copying machines for our Australian friends where, according to the article, personal-use copying is technically still illegal.
Source: The Age
