Norway * -- The Liberal Party Congress of the Northern European * country Norway has moved to change their copyright law to adapt to modern society. Recognizing that new technologies give artists and consumers new opportunities to distribute and receive art and media, the party has moved to forward the following goals:

1) Free File Sharing. The party would like to see new ways of compensating artists and copyright holders so as to make free file sharing more acceptable there.

2) Free sampling. The business and legal structures in lace today make it difficult for musicians, writers, moviemakers and other artists to rework or reuse old works and productions. The party wants to simplify the situation and allow use of older works under "Fair Use" provisions and use only existing plagiarism statues for regulation in commercial for-profit contexts.

3) Currently in Norway (and similarly in many other western nations), copyrights remain valid for over 70 years. The party wants to shorten this.

4) Ban DRM (Digital Right Management). You might not be aware of the inroads that many copyright holders and technology providers have been making in keeping you from using your media as you want. Digital music bought through most online sources has so called DRM "features" that stop you from copying the files, often even between devices you yourself own, which leads to a situation where you might have to buy a particular song or piece of art multiple times simply to play it on the devices you own. (In America, Sony * and Apple have been moving away from DRM'ed art somewhat, but DRMed art is still quite common and pervasive. For this reason we at SkateboardDirectory.com recommend against using DRM-ed files in any format, including AAC and WMA formats. It is our understanding that MP3 files are currently never DRM-encumbered. Various DRM restrictions are also a big part of Microsoft *'s push for their Vista operating system.). At the very least, Norway wants vendors to clearly label which media has DRM embedded and which restrictions the technology places on the contents.

The party mentions that copyright owners and large media distributors systematically abuse copyrights, thereby slowing development and innovation of media. We at SkateboardDirectory.com applaud Norway's legislative movement towards a more free flow of media between copyright holders and users.

This article based on the author's research and on the article Culture Wants To Be Free, found at http://www.uv.no/politics/translated-items/culture-wants-to-be-free?set_language=en

Search this site for more about Norway Moves Legalize File Sharing Change... *