Hutcheon, S. J. “Dumb and dumber: copyright law change.” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 2006.

Summary: The Attorney-General of Australia has promulgated some new copyright rules, which he fancifully characterizes as “reforms.” Under the new rules, it is legal in Australia to record a television or radio program, but the recording can be played only once, after which it must be destroyed. It must not be played in public, and you must not give the recording to a friend. As for pre-recorded music, you can format-shift any music that you have already purchased, but you cannot make a backup copy without changing formats, nor may you lend a format-shifted recording to a friend or sell it to anyone. If you lend, sell, or give away your MP3 player, you must first delete all the music that you originally acquired in any non-MP3 format.

The consensus of the commenters on this story is that the Attorney-General does not really expect these rules to be enforced by human agents. They are instead a way of preparing the ground for “super-broadcast-flag” technology, embedded in digital recording devices, that will enforce the rules automatically.