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Australia To Legalize VCR Recording and CD Ripping

Posted by Zonk on from the welcome-to-the-twenty-first-century dept.

paritosh writes "While the rest of the world is trying to figure out how to stop the assault of anti-consumer intellectual property laws, Australia is breaking free from them." From the article: "See, it is currently illegal in Australia to record shows off the telly, or to transferbangle (Australian for copy) music from CDs to portable music players. The end result is that a large portion of of the Australian citizenry are technically breaking the law, and while that may not sit poorly with a nation born of criminality, it makes the legal system look a tad bit ridiculous. Could you imagine shipping all of those offenders to Madagascar?"

2 of 352 comments (clear)

  1. Fosters Beer is Laughable in AU by Blahbooboo3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the article: "Someone get that man a Foster's!"

    The author clearly knows NOTHING about Australia! :)
    In Australia you can't even find Fosters, and, if you can, no one drinks it as it's considered terrible beer.

  2. Re:The rest of the world(and in particular the US) by bigpicture · · Score: 3, Informative

    "many otherwise civilized nations have been modelling changes to their "intellectual property" laws after the way the United States".

    This has not been because they believe that this is the best "model" or solution, but because they have been arm twisted by the US government and it's shill the WTO. They in essence get denied "free trade" with the US unless they tow the party line.

    But some emerging economies like India, China and even Russia are stepping back and taking another look. And asking do we really need the US trade that badly to let them interfere in our internal laws and policies?