Catch Up TV won't really catch on until all devices are treated equally.

The spread of Australian Catch Up TV services to a range of home entertainment gear is exciting. Right up until the point you sit down to watch something and realise how disadvantaged you are because you're not watching on a computer.

Seven's Plus7 is a classic example with what's wrong with Catch Up TV in Australia. In April Australians watched 2.5 million TV shows via Plus 7, but nine of the top ten most popular shows are not available if you watch Plus7 via a television or Blu-ray player rather than the website. Of Plus7's top ten shows only Australia’s Got Talent managed to make it beyond the browser.

Seven says this is due to rights issues, but I suspect it's also because they don't really want us watching Catch Up TV when we're sitting in front of the television. The fact is that this viewing model is the future of entertainment, whether they like it or not. The sooner the networks come to terms with this, the better they'll be prepared for the entertainment revolution that threatens to cut them out of the picture.

Microsoft's media centre interface is an optional extra with Windows 8.

Microsoft is busy spruiking Windows 8 and the new Metro UI, but if you read the fine print it's clear the MCE media centre interface is taking a back seat. It was introduced with Windows XP Media Centre Edition, turning your computer into a Personal Video Recorder, DVD player and general media player. Since then MCE has been built into several versions of Vista and Windows 7.

Since Vista, Microsoft has bundled an MPEG-2 decoder with MCE versions of Windows so you can watch DVDs using the MCE interface or Windows Media Player without the need to buy extra DVD playback software. This is changing with Windows 8, as explained by Angus Kidman over at Lifehacker.

If you read the fine print, an MPEG-2 decoder will no longer be bundled with Windows -- perhaps as a cost-cutting measure to eliminate paying for decoder licensing fees. You'll need to pay extra for the Windows Media Centre add-on or install a third-party DVD decoder, either by purchasing standalone DVD playback software or perhaps installing a codec pack from the likes of Shark007. Unfortunately you can only purchase the Windows Media Centre add-on if you've paid extra for Windows 8 Pro.

Windows' media centre isn't for everyone but it does offer some great features and it has a loyal fan base. They'll be glad to know they'll still have the option to install the media centre add-on with Windows 8, but the move by Microsoft doesn't bode well for its long term future.

The AFL and NRL victory threatens Australia’s reputation as a nation friendly to innovation.

Optus has been forced to halt its TVNow mobile streaming service after a legal appeal decided that the service infringed on the rights of Australia's two major football leagues, the AFL and NRL.

The service let Optus mobile customers schedule TV recordings and then stream them to their mobile phone. They could even watch shows while still recording them, with a 90-second delay, which is what upset the sporting leagues as they charge Telstra millions of dollars for the rights to stream football matches online.

Now the Federal court has upheld an appeal against the earlier decision, deciding that Optus' actions are a breach of copyright. It found that Optus is at least in part responsible for the act of recording, not the end user alone. If Optus and the end user "acted in concert for the purpose of making a recording", the court ruled that the recordings can not be considered to be for "private or domestic use" -- thus losing their protection under law.

Industry bodies OzHub and the Australian Digital Alliance were quick to criticise the ruling, fearing that it will stifle innovation and threaten technology neutrality.

“The decision by the appeal court overturns the principle from the first court decision that the law applies to what consumers are entitled to do, and should not try to dictate different rules for different technologies," said Matt Healy, chairman of OzHub -- an industry alliance created to promote the use of and investment in cloud services in Australia.

“Putting aside all the excitement and hyperbole that this case has caused in recent weeks, there is a very simple principle that has been lost today; that in a time of media convergence the law should be technology neutral where possible."

The Australian Digital Alliance also warned that the Federal Court’s decision protects legacy models and legacy technologies.

“It’s clear from the Federal Court’s decision that current purpose-based copyright exceptions protect legacy models, legacy technology. This is disadvantageous for consumers, and for the growth of the digital economy in Australia. We need flexible exceptions that support future innovation," said Derek Whitehead OAM, Chairman of the Australian Digital Alliance.

“The Federal Court’s decision creates serious uncertainty for creators and providers of cloud-based services, who could be held liable for the infringements of their subscribers.”

Having lost the iiNet appeal, will Australia's copyright police start kicking down doors?

Will AFACT target pirates in their lounge rooms? I don't think so, the policy of chasing end users was a PR disaster in the US and Australia wouldn't be any different. But there's more than one way to fight a war. Rather than surgical strikes or fear campaigns, I think you can expect the copyright policy to focus on carpet-bombing the internet.

To nip piracy in the bud, copyright holders are lobbying hard for draconian laws that will undermine the foundations of the internet such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Stop Online Piracy Act. Just ask the backers of Megaupload what's coming.

With its efforts to target ISPs shot down and a reluctance to battle it out in the streets, expect the copyright policy to back a scorched earth policy. They're going to step up the backroom war on the foundations of the internet.

Why do we treat music and video differently?

When MP3 players first went on sale in Australia, the only way to get your own music onto them was to break the law and copy your CDs to your computer. Then five years ago Australian copyright law finally changed to permit CD ripping, even though we'd all been doing it for years. Yet the law stopped short of permitted DVD ripping, promising to reassess the situation in a few years.

Most people rip their DVDs for the same reason they rip their CDs, to protect the original and to enjoy the content on other devices. If you've seen what kids and their grubby fingers can do to an expensive DVD, you'll understand why people create a digital DVD jukebox and then put away the originals for safe-keeping. It's easy to rip your DVDs with software such as AnyDVD and watch them on a media centre PC or media player. You're breaking copyright law, but everyone seems content to look the other way.

The time to review this law has come with the Attorney General's department issuing Draft Terms of Reference for the Australian Law Reform Commission Reference on Copyright. Submissions close on April 27 and the Commission is to report no later than November 30, 2013.

The scope includes "a review of exceptions in relation to technological protection measures", but I expect DVD ripping will end up in the too hard basket. It requires dealing with the draconian Digital Millennium Copyright Act we inherited as part of the US Free Trade Agreement -- which lets us rip commercial DVDs as long as we don't break the encryption, which is impossible. It's as absurd as telling people they're allowed to watch a DVD as long as they don't take it out of the case.

The rules need to change but personally I don't think Australian lawmakers have the stomach for such a fight. They'll just bow to the demands of such a powerful industry. Sadly it's easier to just keep an absurd law on the books and ignore it.