Australia to allow CD ripping
In another Pyrrhic victory for fair use rights, Australia's government is set to legalize CD ripping. The revision to the country's copyright law, like proposed changes being mulled in the UK, will legalize activities that are already fairly widespread, including "format shifting" of music you legally own from CDs to digital audio players. While blessing common practices, the new law cracks down on file sharing and piracy, allowing police to issue on-the-spot fines to anyone caught in the act of piracy. The Australian law may also apply to ebooks, which could require companies like Adobe and Microsoft to allow protected ebooks to be printed or saved in other formats for use on non-supported devices.
