Australia might legalize recording of television shows for personal use. After France, it looks like Australia would become the next nation aiming to make lives of regular citizens easier going against the television and media companies. France government is trying to legalize p2p file sharing if the web users are ready to pay a fix monthly royalty charge for doing so. Australian government is also planning something in the same direction and plans to make it legal for the people to record television program for personal use.

The Federal Government is planning to overturn a ban which limits such activities which has somewhat made most of their population criminals in the eye of the law. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has supported the cause and plans to add fair-use loopholes that will clear the way for private citizens to copy the content without breaking the law.

However, it is not clear if the government would help the industry by levying some kind of a tax on devices, which can be used to make copies of digital content like blank CDs and DVDs. As per current laws in the country, it is illegal for example to convert the songs on an audio CD to play them on portable music players like the Apple iPod. In fact, taping a program coming on television is also illegal as per the laws in Australia.

Mr Ruddock said in a statement that their should be a compromise which helps both the industry and the common man. He added: "We should have copyright laws that are more targeted at the real problem. We should not treat everyday Australians who want to use technology to enjoy copyright material they have obtained legally as infringers where this does not cause harm to our copyright industries."

Source: http://news.techwhack.com