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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?"

5 of 352 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by vidarlo · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Australia was originally a place for criminals. J/K aside, what Australia has , is interesting enough.

    But the big question in my eyes is not whatever they make unDRM'd material legal to copy. The interesting thing if is they do as USA (And as Norwegian government tried to do), to make it illegal to circumvent copyright protection measurments. If that's the case, they pretty much ensure it is still illegal to copy media, because most media seems to be DRM'd those days, or at least has potential to be.

    So to really make a difference, this has to legalize copying of any media, for non-commercial, private purposes, like listnening to it at your Personal Music Player. If they choose to do, it might stake out a path forward for other nations to follow.

    I'm also for a law on media, that discusses your right to the exemplar, or just a general license to use that piece of media as you see fit. I'm for the last option. Let me buy a CD, and thereby rights to MP3s, oggs, and even a new cd for the production-cost of the cd (e.g 1-2$) if I loose the first one. Such a general license would be a nice thing.

    --
    Assembling etherkillers for fun an profit
  2. 'Transferbangle'? by FireballX301 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I suppose I'll go ahead and snark the glowboxy in order to transferbangle redundanmancy for general purposes.

    On a side note google gave only 2 hits for transferbangle, both dupes of this little blurb. So yeah, uh, made up words suck.

  3. 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.

  4. When is a crime a crime? by Azreal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Technically a crime is whenever you break a law. But I have to wonder, at what point does a law become impotent? Take for instance the 18th amendment and the prohibition of alcohol. Something like 36 states ratified it, and yet almost everyone was ignoring it (especially the Kennedy's, which is where they made their fortune, in bootlegging). So the 21st amendment was eventually drafted repealing the 18th. If laws are something akin to a collectively agreed to moral pact that benefits and protects the majority of the citizens, isn't the law moot if the majority of the citizens choose to ignore said law?

    --
    $sys$droids
  5. Re:A breath of sanity in the new year by monkaru · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then come to Canada: http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/03/31/canada/downlo ad_court040331 However, do keep in mind that you must marry a member of the same sex. It isn't optional anymore and we are very strict about that.