Well, after all of the mounting fines that would inevitably have piled up in my house if the copyright agency saw my computer, I am now happy to declare that I will soon no longer be a criminal in the eyes of Australian Law.

Yes, for the past 40 years, Australia has not had a fair-use copying clause in our laws - the type of law that allows US Citizens to format-shift their music (CD-MP3), or backup their software.  Well, they're finally amending the laws, and now, I can breathe easily when it comes to listening to my music.

Here's the portion that the Slashdot article has lifted:

"Once the new laws are passed, 'format shifting' of music, newspapers and books from personal collections onto MP3 players will become legal. The new laws will also make it legal for people to tape television and radio programs for playback later, a practice currently prohibited although millions of people regularly do it. Under the current regime, millions of households a day are breaking the law when they tape a show and watch it at another time."