Does the RIAA have a crazy aunt who lives in Australia. How else to explain this astonishing proposed law:

Section 132AL(2) of the bill provides that a person commits an "indictable offence" if they possess "a device, intending it to be used for making an infringing copy of a work or other subject-matter".

This is the most serious offence for an individual technology user, as it means they've intentionally broken copyright law. It is subject to a penalty of five years in jail, a fine of up to $65,000, or both.

The "device" cited could be an iPod, or any other piece of technology that could be used to infringe copyright, such as any MP3 player, a camera phone, a VCR or a DVD recorder.

Under proposed new copyright laws, loading tracks onto a music player, which have been copied from a CD, would be classified as infringing copyright. This would apply even if that CD was legitimately purchased.

Now, here in the US, the music labels have been pushing for things like that, but it hasn't reached that level of absurdity. I hope this is simply hyperventilation- the Grokster case here added an additional test - a company flogging a potentially infringing service is in trouble if they are using a "wink wink, nudge nudge" approach to stopping copyright violations.

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