Nail in the coffin

The ABC reports that Australia and the USA will commence the "Free" Trade Agreement as of Jan 1, 2005.

A sad day for the Australian IT industry. It mentions that one of the benefits of the AUSFTA is "enhancing protection for intellectual property". Unfortunately it does so by going down the path of adopting DMCA-like provisions, without giving Australia "Fair Use".

The AUSFTA is net-negative for the Australian IT industry - obviously Australia's future isn't in high-tech industries, but as a producers of wheat and sheep. I should get into farming now, ahead of the rush.

In better news, Rusty posts a lengthy tome on Software Patentability. He concludes "the patentability of software has brought no improvement to the industry. "

| 19 Nov 2004 | #