Taping Illegal in Australia?

[j]

From the U2 torrents website:

Soon Recordings Will Be a Crime in Australia

Hundreds of U2 fans used their mobile phones to record Bono belting
out their favourite songs at Sydney's Telstra Stadium over three
concerts ending last night. Little did they know that under planned
changes to copyright laws, they would be committing a criminal
offence, attracting a maximum fine of $6600.

In fact, if the changes are passed by the Australian Senate next
month, police will be able to issue reduced fines on the spot. And
the U2 fan would not even have to know that what they were doing was
illegal.

When Australia's Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, flagged the
changes earlier this year, he said they would "make our laws fairer
for consumers and tougher on copyright pirates." For example, police
would be able to go to a market, find people selling pirated CDs and
issue fines on the spot.

But the Internet Industry Association believes the changes have gone
too far and could make it a crime for people to play radios in public
parks or publish videos of school concert performances on their
websites.

"This could be devastating for the average Australian family," the
chief executive of the association, Peter Coroneos, said.

The association is particularly concerned that copyright offences
will now attract criminal penalties. That effectively means an
unsuspecting teenager who burns a copy of a CD to give to a friend,
or a U2 fan, for example, who uploads their video recording of a rock
concert onto the popular website YouTube.com, could end up with a
criminal record.

Indeed, fans' recordings of U2's Sydney concerts are already playing
on YouTube.com. A search of "U2 and Sydney" on YouTube was already
netting 216 results before last night's concert.

Other activities which could attract fines and a criminal record
include backing up an iTunes music file onto a DVD or recording a
group of your friends singing a song in a restaurant and then posting
it on a social networking website. The Internet Industry Association
says it would even be a criminal offence if that song was Happy
Birthday because it remains a copyright work until 2030.

"It's public performance without licence, an offence under the bill,"
Mr. Coroneos said. And a person who uploads a soundtrack onto
YouTube.com could even face jail, according to legal advice received
by the association.

"If it is not the Government's intention to allow these ridiculous
outcomes to remain even theoretical possibilities in Australia, then
the bill must be withdrawn and redrafted until the unintended
consequences are properly understood and addressed," he said.

The Copyright Amendment Bill 2006 has already passed through the
House of Representatives. But a spokesman for Mr. Ruddock said
concerns were being taken into account and could be addressed before
it was passed by the Senate.

"All these things have been taken on board and are being looked at,"
the spokesman said yesterday.

The Senate committee which conducted an inquiry into the bill has
recommended that the Government review the changes to avoid their
widespread application to the everyday activities of Australians. It
also wants the Government to conduct a public awareness campaign of
how the bill would affect people and to consult with industry and
consumer groups.

The committee had a one-day hearing last Tuesday and was given less
than a week to complete its report.

"We had a ridiculously short time to review immensely complex
legislation,
" the Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett, a member of the
committee, said yesterday.

"Some people are saying that it has always been illegal to record the
Sunday night movie and watch it later but no one ever got busted for
it so why worry about these changes? But I believe when you are
drafting legislation, you need to eliminate this lack of clarity as
far as possible."

-Sydney Morning Herald

[nausearockpig]

i thought taping shows in any way, shape or form without consent would be illegal in any part of our sad world.. The back of any concert tix i have bought here in Australia have got warnings etc on them about taping. this is in small venues like Brisbane's "The Zoo" and the Entertainment Centre...

I know that TOOL police this really heavily and get very cranky with tapers that are caught even ejecting them from the shows..[A BIG THANK YOU TO THE TOOL TAPERS OUT THERE RISKING EJECTION FOR SHARING THEIR TOOL TAPINGS ALL AROUND THE WORLD - thus allowing me to have almost 100 TOOL shows] - And to those that have taped and shared many The Cure shows....

Long Live Australia! at the arse end of the world.... in so many ways. though it's ok for other stuff...