Australia Planning To Recognize Fair Use?
from the shocking dept
Following the attempt in France to free up personal sharing of digital content, it looks like Australia may be following suit -- even if just a bit. Slashdot points out that the Australian government plans to expand fair use to include personal copies. It's not nearly as far as the French effort -- but basically just brings Australian law closer to current American law where there is some legal fair use provisions for taping a TV show or ripping a CD. Both practices are technically illegal in Australia, apparently, so this is more about acknowledging that fair use really exists, rather than really expanding the concept. Still, given that the entertainment industry likes to deny fair use exists, and their recent attempts to get the US government to punish countries that aren't toeing the line over intellectual property laws, it wouldn't be surprising if they protest these moves in Australia as well.
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Finally
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Great, but could be better.
What would be even better would be if it were taken to the point that if you own something that is in or could be copied to a digital format then any digital manipulation as well as the transfer to such a digital format would be perfectly legal. This would include decompiling software to change its performance. But I don't think that Microsoft would let our government do this even if they were inclined to do so.
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Oh, Irony....
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