For folks in Australia, new laws to limit use of recording could mean that some of the freedoms they have come to expect could become things of the past. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock is proposing changes to Australian law that would mean that it would only be permitted to watch a recording from TV once, after which the recording must be deleted. It would also become illegal to share recordings with family and friends, and these laws will apply to anything that's recorded from TV, CD or whatever.
Ruddock sees these moves as making the law fairer for consumers and tougher on copyright pirates, an attitude that seems to be getting more common all over the world now. When it comes to media, and the public's ability to copy or distribute it, the law is definitely on the side of big business now. We are definitely approaching a time where both the law and technology will make it very hard for consumers to copy, record or distribute things that they should not. Strict conditions will be put in place as regards format-shifting of material, so that it would be legal to transfer tracks from your legally-owned CDs onto an iPod, but it would be illegal to make a compilation CD from other CDs.
"These are commonsense amendments which will maintain Australia's copyright laws as the best in the world, for the benefit of our creators and other copyright owners," said Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.
No doubt other nation's governments are considering implementing similar laws in the future.