The internet is a marvellous thing. It's so easy to bring up Google or Wikipedia and educate yourself on practically any subject in the world... unless that subject happens to be Australia-specific laws and regulations. Wikipedia is sorely lacking in quantity and quality its coverage of Australian law subjects, and Google searches generally bring up a lot of US-centric information. It turns out that with all the coverage file sharing and intellectual property have been receiving in the U.S., there's a lot of information out there to help Americans understand their rights.

But as much as the U.S. has going for it, I'm really not interested in laws that don't apply to me.

So I decided to dig a little deeper and eventually found myself on the Australian Copyright Council website - www.copyright.org.au. It's filled with practical, easy-to-understand info-sheets on literally dozens of copyright-related issues, from various points-of-view.

Not all of these info-sheets will be relevant to everyone, so I will concentrate on the information related to music: copying, ripping, burning, lending and selling CDs that you have legally purchased.

The relevant info-sheet on the ACC website is G070, Music: copying MP3s, CDs, cassettes and records, published in December, 2006 (importantly, after the ratification of the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement, and the passing of the Copyright Amendment Act 2006). Ironically, the ACC's copyright notice disallows linking directly to the PDF, so you're going to have to find it on the website yourself!

Ripping to computer and portable music players

There has been a lot of misinformation spreading with regard to copying music to your iPod or other portable music player in Australia, and I must admit that until I started researching for this story, I thought it was illegal to make any copies of a CD or music file.

However, the truth is that you are allowed to make copies of a sound recording (CD, cassette, vinyl records, etc) that you have legally purchased, on any device that you own. The copy does not have to be the same format as the original, so it is therefore legal for you to make a copy of a CD for each of the following situations:

• An MP3 copy on your computer
• An MP3, AAC, FLAC, or any other audio format for your iPod or other personal music player
• Another copy for another personal music player you own

In this instance, it's important to note that a "copy" doesn't mean that you need three different files of the same song on your computer. Merely copying the same file onto different devices creates "copies" of the original file, and as long as you own the device onto which you're copying the file, it's perfectly legal.

It's also important to note that you must legitimately own the CD or sound recording you are copying, you must do the copying yourself, and you must own the device you're copying it with. So therefore you cannot make copies on behalf of your mates, even if they own the CD themselves, and you can't make copies on your mate's computer.

Burning to blank CD

Under the same rule that governs copying music to an iPod, you're allowed to make a copy of a CD for your car, and any other device you own. An iPod, a car CD player and a computer all count as "devices" as far as copyright is concerned, and you are legally allowed to make copies of a sound recording for each of these devices.

Again, you must own the CD you are copying from, and must do the copying for yourself, just like with ripping it to a computer. If you are burning it from CD to CD and do not plan to make a copy for the computer, you still have to own the computer on which you do the burning.

Personal backups

It also surprised me to learn that "personal backups" are also legal under Australian copyright law. You are allowed to make one copy of a sound recording for the purpose of a personal backup, assuming you have legally bought the CD and own the device on which you do the copying.

Lending to others

You are permitted to lend (but not give) either the original CD or a copy of it to family members, or those you live with. You cannot lend any copies to friends who do not live in the same house as you, so Joe Bloggs down the road is out of luck.

What you can't do

You're not allowed to sell a copy of a CD, and if you sell the original CD, any copy that you made before you sold it becomes illegal. You're not allowed to distribute or broadcast any sound recording in public, so therefore it's also illegal to do the same with a copy.

Sharing digital files that you have legally ripped to your computer from a CD you own to another person over the internet is not allowed. Even having those files available to others over the internet (for example, in a folder that is shared in a P2P program) can get you in some heavy shit, whether or not you willingly allowed others to download them, so if you want to be a law-abiding citizen (and don't we all), keep your files off the internet.

Exceptions: radio and TV

These rules generally do not apply to radio, TV or digital copies of radio programs (podcasts). Original podcasts, those that are internet-only and not broadcast on the radio, are pretty much the same as a "sound recording" as above, but podcasts of radio shows are seen to be no different than the actual radio show broadcast itself.

The one exception to this is for "time-shifting" a show if you want to view it privately at a time other than when it is broadcast.

P2P and downloading music files

Obviously, if you download a copy of an album from the internet, whether you legally own the CD or not, you are breaking copyright law because you didn't create the copy yourself.

Conclusion

As a result of the Berne Convention (an international treaty on intellectual property which applies to almost every country in the world), a copyright work is covered by copyright laws in every country, automatically. That means that a piece of music created in Greenland is governed by the exact same copyright laws in Australia as a piece of Australian music. In France, both the Greenlandian music and the Australian music are covered by French copyright laws, and so forth.

Copyright law is complex and hard to get your head around, but luckily we have an organisation like the ACC to educate the public on these matters. I used to be a lot more ignorant of copyright law than I am now, and I'm pleased to know that I'm actually allowed to do a lot more with my CDs than I thought I was.