But I don’t know what email address to post to, and I’m certain that the default one mentioned on the act.gov.au website would probably be filtered or managed by underlings hence would not see the PM’s desk.

I don’t think snail mail is the best solution, but might be worth a try. anyone have any suggestions? Tried various possible wranglings of john howard and parliament.gov.au, to no success yet.

will keep trying. Perhaps people know of useful other Australian parliamentarians emails to try? If you do, don’t tell me, send them this message yourself, if you are concerned about this issue.

re:http://www.gutenberg.net.au/

Please email friends and relatives about it. And don’t forget to contact your local blind, deaf, and spineless politician to tell them what you think. (Hmmm… blind, deaf and spineless — sounds like a jellyfish doesn’t it.)

On the subject of Adobe’s pdf format: it is a file format made not for the electronic age but for people who never really made the transition from paper. It is virtually impossible to convert reliably into any other format so is a dead end for information. (Often the only way to comment on such a piece is to descend to commenting in the original pdf format.) A corporation which publishes a report in that format is so lost in the past that it is a given that they don’t understand the ramifications of the electronic age anyway.

Unfortunately the ACCC (according to a reply they sent me) isn’t concerned with intellectual property issues like this.

Also, the independent government organisation, the Copyright Law Review Committee (CLRC), hasn’t been asked to do a study into copyright extension though they have done other investigations.

So we’re left with reports that are funded practically entirely by groups who have a lot to gain from copyright extension…

By the way, the section concerned with copyright extensions on existing works is section 3.4, which isn’t commented on in the pdf.

Apparently due to the U.S. free-trade agreement which should be finalised in December, these copyright extensions will be forced onto us. I’ve been trying to contact politicians and newspapers about this and I’d encourage others to do the same…

Luke Wenke.
My email beings with iljwamh1234567890 and ends with hotmail.com (I’m trying to avoid spam by making it harder for software to find my email address)

I have never understood why “the common person” has such a habit (need?) to swallow the guvmint slant hook, line, and sinker. We are continually told by various alternate press associations, etc. how Big Business runs guvmint, yet we still follow along. I think a large part of it is that the alternate news sources merely preach to the converted. Maybe I do understand, but can’t bring myself to accept it.

Back in the days the U.S. threw off the British yoke, it was hard for business to control the government. I think it was when poiticians began to make money in political careers, rather than it being a costly venture one entered because one believed in serving, that it all went downhill. I can’t be sure, but I would guess it is a phenomenon that start roughly in the mid to late 1800s.

If anyone finds the report mentioned by Wolfbone, I’d love to see it.

Rainer, I fully agree with the second half of your comment. US voters are led to believe that what’s good for business is good for them. Payroll taxes versus income taxes and the debates regarding accurate figures tallying such are an excellent example.

Addressing the issue at hand, I believe we are in a US-led downward spiral, and have been for some time. As long as Big Business can keep pulling the levers, the American guvmint will keep extending corporations’ rights over citizens’ rights. And they will keep pushing these Big Business ideas on the rest of us. (Yeah, what do I know; I’m not an American.) Here in Canada, our slide is typically a little slower, and sometimes (rarely) we even buck the US push. But, in the end, we usually succumb. Sometimes, we’re even a step ahead of the US.

Recently, there was “public” dicussion of this issue that consisted of a half day online forum discussion (broken into hour long segments of directed discussion), on an unpublicised website by the law firm drafting the copyright amendments.

Governments don’t think long term, but that’s not news.

In America, the answer to that argument was simple: Hollywood benefited. But what is the argument in Australia?

The same.

The Australians, with a growing number of productions in their country, “Finding Nemo,” “The Matrix” for example, may be persuaded that what is good for Hollywood is good for them.

And finally, as Howard and Blair have demonstrated, they’ll fall into line with anything that’s good enough for America.