Downloading in Finland

An Aussie studying in Finland has been contemplating permissions for downloading music in her homeland and her current abode.

But what does Finnish music sound like? What's a cooking demonstration if you can't taste the food at the end. You can check out some samples on the Finland Music Information Centre website. But I can't really do much more. In Finland I could help you out. In Finland, or indeed anywhere in Europe, anyone can download, copy and burn for personal use. Indeed, I could probably help you out in the US – a short sample, no profit motive, is probably fair use.

But not in Australia. In Australia, it's against the law to download, to copy, to burn, to create podcasts of copyright works without the copyright owner's permission. Even for private use. And it's against the law for me to encourage you, to provide any facilities or software like a file sharing network and tell you how to do it, knowing you will do it.

Sure, there is an exception for criticism or review. But it rarely applies to the whole of the work when the work is commercially available, and people usually want to check out the whole of the work. And there is a more fundamental problem – where is the reviewer supposed to get the song in the first place – will iTunes give it to you for free if you say you are a reviewer? Will your reviewing words magically break the DRM?