AFACT appeals court decision in AFACT vs iiNet
From a Slashdot post:
“There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.”
From "Life-Line", Robert A Heinlein, 1939.
My take on the situation is this: the movie industry (though in this case, it's really the movie publication and distribution industry) based their business on the model of producing physical copies of an ephemeral source, and charging people for access to the physical media on which the source is recorded. That's why they're called recording studios and publishers. The Internet renders obsolete the practice of producing physical copies of an ephemeral source - we don't need to have DVDs in order to distribute movies anymore.
A modern version of the industry would make these movies available (for a reasonable price) over the Internet. People are already using the Internet to access this content in violation of copyrights. Some do it simply because they can (people who collect hundreds of movies that they're never actually going to watch), some because they want to stick it to "the man", others because they haven't been educated about money and the cost of running a business, and others because they can't get to the movie through legitimate channels. The only people who we can make a difference with are the ones who want to pay for the movie, but can't due to failure of supply. Everyone else isn't doing economic damage to the movie industry - they're not lost sale, because they would never have bought the movie given the opportunity.
This case is about AFACT trying to get the Government to legislate against digital distribution, in order to prop up the failing DVD industry. Should the Government legislate to ban cockatoos and parrots due to the damage they cause to crops?