rfc1394's Journal: Down Under: Use an iPod, go to jail?

In this article, the Sydney Morning Herald reports proposed changes to Australia's copyright laws could so lower the standard of proof in copyright infringement cases by making posession of a device which can infringe copyright even if you were unaware you were doing so to be a crime. Virtually any device that can easily reproduce copyrightable material, such as a camera cell phone, an iPod or any MP3 player which is used to, say, load tracks from a CD even if the CD was legally purchased, "would constitute an indictable offense" of criminal copyright infringement with huge fines (AU$65,000, almost exactly US$50,000) and jail time of up to 5 years. Wonder how long before this sort of stunt is tried here in the U.S., after all, as Ayn Rand said in "Atlas Shrugged", if you don't have enough conscript labor in jails, change the laws to make more people into criminals.