DRM.info: Informing about the dangers of controlling privatemedia use

[David Wolverton]

> David Wolverton wrote:
> 
> > Specifically: Is it legal for an Australian (for example) 
> to buy from
> > this Site or is there some clause/provision I'm unaware of that
> > prohibits purchase for anyone outside the Russian 
> Federation that would
> > bring Music Industry officials storming down doors to
> > prosecute/confiscate PC's - or is a purchase from them just as
> > legitimate as from (for example) Telstra Music?
> 
> Australia's 2004 Copyright Act allows parallel importing for music.
> Briefly, parallel importing is what happens when you legally purchase
> content in some other jurisdiction which has copyright laws 
> sufficiently
> similar to ours.
> 
> (the old copyright act didn't allow parallel importing:  You 
> could only
> legally sell music in Australia from Australian licensors.  
> Technically
> that meant that it was illegal to buy CDs in Australia from 
> amazon.com.
> Predictably, Australian retailers, forced to buy from 
> Australian licensors
> at inflated prices, weren't happy with that situation, and 
> they successfully
> lobbied the Government to have parallel importing provisions 
> added to the
> Copyright Act when it was redrafted a few years ago)
> 
> allofmp3.com claims to be selling music in Russian jurisdiction in
> compliance with their laws, and that their music is therefore
> able to be legally purchased by anyone else who lives somewhere that
> allows parallel importing.
> 
> ARIA hates parallel importing, and I believe they're claiming that
> Russia's copyright law is sufficiently divergent from ours 
> that parallel
> importing from Russia shouldn't be allowed.  I don't think they have
> any jurisprudence to prove their point, though.
> 
> More info here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllOfMP3.com#Legality_in_Australia
> (the "parallel importation laws" mentioned in the paragraph cited
> concern the laws which used to ban the practice, not the new ones
> which authorize it)

Awesome...  Thanks for the detailed answer!