Australian government legalises home transferring of content

Despite the widespread use of iPods and other MP3 players in Australia, under their current copyright law up until now apparently anyone who copies copyright recordings from CDs, cassette tapes, vinyl records or any other source to their MP3 player is breaking the law and could be sued by the copyright holder.  Even simply transferring a CD collection to an MP3 player could result in a harsh penalty.

The Australian Government is now implementing proposing changes to the copyright law to legalise home recordings as well as to make it legal to make recordings from TV and the radio as well as to copy VHS recordings to DVD.  Schools, universities and libraries would also get certain exemptions for non-commercial use.  They have not fully decided on whether to legalise the transferring of copyright DVD content to other equipment.

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Other proposed changes include cracking down on piracy by dealing with those who profit from copying copyright works or cause significant loses by the redistribution of it, such as by introducing on-the-spot fines and making it easier for courts to deal with copyright piracy.  Thanks to sidz and lanky for submitting the following news:

MUSIC fans will be able to legally record their CD collections onto iPods and MP3 players under a raft of proposed changes to Federal Government copyright laws.

(further down the article)

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Under existing laws, people copying material risked being sued by the copyright owner.

For someone who had copied their entire CD collection onto an MP3 player, the damages could, theoretically, be in the thousands.

Some further info can be found on The Edge here.

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While legalising home copying and recording may seem like a good idea, it is unclear if this would cover copy-protected material.  For example, in the US it is legal for one to make a copy of a CD to their iPod, but if the disc is crippled with copy-protection measures, the DMCA prohibits the circumvention of these copy-protection measures.  On the other hand, mod-chips which can break the copy-protection measures on game consoles have been declared legal after Sony lost a case in trying to sue a supplier of mod-chips.  The Australian government originally considered a Fair-use law back in early 2005.

Source: News Limited - Sunday Telegraph

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