Australian Ipod owners are all criminals!?

An article in the Herald Sun, Australia's leading daily newspaper last week, suggests that Australian iPod owners are breaking the country's piracy laws if they load music onto their portable audio players.

According to the Herald Sun, "No legal method exists for Australian iPod owners to fill their player with music."

The iTunes music store is not yet available in Australia, and music files available from legal commercial music sites are not compatible with the iPod. The Herald Sun also reports that the common method of "ripping" tunes to an iPod from the user's own CD collection is illegal in Australia as a breach of copyright laws.

Source: Herald Sun


The sheer absurdity of this situation should be sufficient motivation for the Federal Government to change these laws before Xmas. Imagine what will happen if someone gets sued for listening to their CDs on an mp3 player?

Worse still, I've read elsewhere that it is illegal for me to 'broadcast' my iPod through my car radio using my iTrips.

The Australian music industry which wholeheartedly supports these antiquated laws really is a disgrace, and have their collective heads buried in the sand. What about Podcasting? Is it illegal to listen to that too?

Why not prosecute every PVR and DVD recorder owner and VHS tape player owner, hell even compact cassette owner too while we are at it. I think the puts all of Australia's 20 million population in Prison! Australia has got to have one of the most whacked out copyright laws on the planet! So if a law is unenforceable cause it is so stupidly out of date, isn't it a time to change it. The whole planet is laughing at our outdated copyright laws!

With the USFTA (Fair Trade agreement) now a reality, our copyright laws should, at least, be in step with those of the US and most other countries in the world. Maybe this is why there is no Itunes store in Australia, due to our stupid Draconian copyright laws?

Any case its time to change the law! Write to your local pollies, the commications minister, raise your flag and tell the idiots in Canberra we want change and we want it now !