Australian Copyright Law Updated

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.thepdaguy.com/view_post.php?id=279' target='_blank'>http://www.thepdaguy.com/view_post.php?id=279</a><br /><br /></div><i>"At first I said "Hooray" but now I'm toning it down to a mutter of disgruntlement. The Australian government is finally updating the law so it will now be permissable for Australians to record TV shows with a VCR and to copy music to an iPod or other MP3 player. You see now, that could have landed you a fine or jail time in the Land Down Under. I'm still not sure what all those VCRs were doing for the last 25 or so years. So what's the proposed legislation say? Firstly, ripping CDs to play on an iPod or to store on some other medium is OK as long as the format is changed. Yes, that's right, backing a CD up will be illegal (still) but converting it to MP3, WMA or some other format will be OK. It's all going to be about format shifting. Secondly, if you record a TV show to your VCR or PVR you'll only be allowed to watch that recording once!"</i><br /><br />No matter where you go in the world, politicians are all the same it seems: they're in the pocket of the movie &amp; music industry lobbyists. The people who want us to buy a DVD to play on our TV, another copy to play on our portable media players, and heck, maybe a third copy to stream if we're away from home. :roll:

[Darius Wey]

The "watch it once" rule is just bizarre. What on earth were they thinking?

Not only is it hard to enforce, it gives the consumer absolutely no freedom. :?

[Jon Westfall]

The "watch it once" rule is just bizarre. What on earth were they thinking?

Not only is it hard to enforce, it gives the consumer absolutely no freedom. :?

Hard to enforce? It actually sounds impossible to enforce! Short of spying on your or getting your friends to testify that they watched you watch the video more than once (They'd have to be careful there to make sure they didn't self-incriminate), I don't see how it could be enforced.

So if content-providers have the absolute right to making sure their content is only viewed, at max, 1 more time, does a website serving content in this country have the right to allow only 1 reading of their articles per person? This sounds like the kind of law the RIAA and MPAA would love to have in the U.S.

[Darius Wey]

This sounds like the kind of law the RIAA and MPAA would love to have in the U.S.

Don't give 'em ideas. You'll jinx yourself. ;)