inamerrata

(For those playing along at home, this is about the proposed Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States, which includes an IP chapter that requires Australia to change its copyright and patent law to line up more with the DMCA and the US Patent Office. I’ve commented on this previously.)

Anyway, today’s post is to note that Linux Australia’s submission (#183) has finally been accepted, as has Rusty Russell’s (#184). It’s a bit weird that it took so long to accept them — they were submitted on time (ie, weeks ago), yet seem to have been accepted only after the ABC’s submission which was very late (it’s dated 30th April), and concurrent with the ASX submission which appears to have only been sent in yesterday. Weird. On the other hand, they might’ve been not quite compliant with the rules for submissions (which require addresses and such for individuals at least), so maybe that was the problem.

In other news, Matthew Rimmer from the ANU (submission 27) appeared as a witness before the committee today, and the Australian Digital Alliance (submission 71) did likewise yesterday. It’ll be interesting to see what the committee thinks of their opinions when the transcripts of those sessions come out.