Aussie Law Could Put iPod Owners in Jail

The Australian Federal government has proposed changes to digital copyright laws in the country, which have lowered the standard of proof required to charge someone with copyright infringement. According to the changes in the Copyright Amendment Bill 2006, Australian citizens will be slapped with a fine of $65,000, or face a jail term of five years (or both), if found guilty of possessing a device, which is capable of digitally making an infringing copy of material.

The ‘device’, as stated in Section 132AL (2) could be an MP3 player, a camera phone, VCR or DVD recorder among other gadgets used by Australians. Moreover, loading tracks onto a music player, which have been copied from a legitimately purchased CD, would also be classified as infringing copyright. The proposed changes look to make it an ‘indictable offense’ to possess these devices.

The only respite for Australians seems to be the exception in the proposed bill, which allows users to make one main copy of a CD as well as temporary copies, provided the temporary copies are destroyed at the ‘first practicable time’.

The Democrats as well as Senators from the Labor party have spoken out against the changes, saying that that the government is trying to push the complex bill through parliament before examining it thoroughly.

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