Like a good copyright lawyer, I was watching The Panel tonight. In the wrap-up stanza of miscellany, Kate Langbroek (who is usually a waste of space and air-time on the show) had an interesting confession.
She and her girlfriends, she said, often procure pirated movies (i.e., unauthorised copies of cinematograph films produced commercially) from south-east Asian nations and watch them. This weekend, they watched the modern classic Mean Girls. And it was worth noting on national television because the quality—from an in-cinema camera—was just so good. It was almost professional! She couldn’t believe it wasn’t butter! And the subtitles! How wacky! “Regina” is translated as “thunder gold”!
Did the Working Dog panelists—Rob Sitch and Santo Cilauro—howl with outrage at this brazen flouting of copyright laws, which are designed to protect producers such as them? No—they compared notes with other pirated DVDs they had viewed. (Then again, maybe it was an act of civil disobedience in response to Network Ten Pty Ltd v TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd [2004] HCA 14.)
I realise that Kim Weatherall is mad as hell and not going to take it any more. But it’s another datapoint to add to her culture war:
What are people out there to make of these mixed messages? Copying is evil but copying is ok? How are we meant to reconcile all that? And how are we meant to reconcile that with our longstanding assumed freedoms to make some copies for personal use? …
Last time I checked, “Kate Langbroek and her girlfriends do it, talk about it on national TV, and didn’t get into trouble” wasn’t a defence to infringement under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).
