Australian Media 'Crooks' to Come in from the Cold

pagefault writes "News.com is reporting that millions of Australians who tape TV shows and copy CDs will soon get the right to do it with a clear conscience. From the article: 'The Federal Government will next year legalize the video recording of television shows for personal use, and the transfer of songs from CDs to MP3 players, in a bid to overturn a ban which has made criminals of much of the population."

Re:Everyone's a criminal!

[Tezkah]

You're forgetting that Australia is a nation that was founded by criminals. They are truly a nation where everyone was once a criminal.

Brings a tear to my eye. Makes me want to sing!

Oh say can you see, by the boot's glistening blue light, what so proudly we booted, the establishment of Fair Use

Re:weeeed

[Anonymous Coward]

but i'm not alowed to walk around with 3 oz of weed 20 pills and a dash of nutmeg


I hear the Canadian government is set to legalize nutmeg. You should look into immigrating.

Re:Everyone's a criminal!

[FusionDragon2099]

Makes me want to sing! Considering the how the RIAA acts, you probably shouldn't.

Re:Everyone's a criminal!

[nathanh]

You're forgetting that Australia is a nation that was founded by criminals. They are truly a nation where everyone was once a criminal.

And America was founded by puritans. Australians are forever grateful that we got the better deal.

Back to reality, Australia was neither founded by criminals nor was everyone once a criminal. Australia was founded by the British as a penal colony. God bless America for doing a bang up job on your education.

Re:Before the obvious tirades start....

[Anonymous Coward]

Now contrast that with a country (no names) who was founded by extremist religious whack-jobs fleeing incarceration once Europe finally took out the trash, who eagerly embraced slavery, who eliminated pretty much all of the native population, who's Founding Fathers were mainly sozzled drunks beating their manservants and who now comprises 5% of the worlds population but accounts for over 50% of the worlds drug usage and who gun each other down by the tens of thousands in the streets each year.

Yeah, those Canadians are real bastards.

Just wait a year or two

[l33tlamer]

[US President]: Hey, I hear that you are letting your minions copying CDs down there. You do remember the agreement we had right?
[AUS President]: huh?
[US President]: The FREE trade agreement?
[AUS President]: Oh yeah, I forgot. Don't worry, should be fixed in a jiffy. Btw, I got to get back to Australia in a week. The people seems to get a bit worried when their president is away for more than a few months.
[US President]: Ok, I guess I can replace you with an intern. Go ahead and get out from underneath my desk.

All hail to our Yanky overlords. I, as an Australian, welcome our inclusion into the United States of America as its newest state. I also welcome renaming our parliament to "Congress" and our Prime Minister to "President". One can only hope that the states will outsource its prison facilities over here.

Re:Any Enforcement?

[AtrN]

Were they enforced often

True story...

At the last federal election I rock up to the polling place, a school not too far from my house. I just walked up, got the iPod going so I don't have to listen to the local "party members" trying to hand me how to vote forms. As I walk in this guy, talking to someone on his left, bumps into me. I turn around, he turns around. It's fucking John Howard (prime minister of Oz if you don't know) - his office is just up the road from the school and he'd wandered down for a meet-and-greet. I just kept going.

He did nothing! There I was, fragantly defying the law of the land and our fearless leader, otherwise known as "the rodent", did nothing. He had his security guys there. He could of tackled me himself. Grabbed me and made a citizen's arrest or something. But he did nothing. Weak on law he is. Weak!

Re:Just wait a year or two

[radiotyler]

One can only hope that the states will outsource its prison facilities over here.

I thought the British Empire tried that once already?

*rimshot*

Re:Before the obvious tirades start....

[Greg@UF]

Because the poor bastard live right next door to wonderful, glorious New Zealand.. So near to paradise, and yet so far !

*grin*

Re:Before the obvious tirades start....

[drsmithy]

Add in the worlds best beaches, coral reefs, rainforests, snow country [...]

Yer dreamin'.

Re:Everyone's a criminal!

[Darius Jedburgh]

Do they teach nothing more than that in other places around the world?

That's just a stereotype picked up from TV. The stuff about Australia that's taught in schools in the rest of the world is quite different. In fact, just for reference I'm putting the entire history of Australia that's taught in the US in the remainder of this comment:

Re:Everyone's a criminal!

[obeythefist]

Actually it's just NSW that was founded as a penal colony to start with.

Ahh, how little has changed.

Re:Everyone's a criminal!

[Esion Modnar]

many of the people originally shipped to Australia were convicted of offences which would be considered barely criminal today, like stealing a loaf of bread (or copying a CD?)

Of course, back then CD's were carefully carved out of wood by trained artisans. And the CD players were steam powered.