digital music and (il)legality in NZ

After Nabeel's lecture today I've spent some time looking up the NZ angle on mp3, file sharing, the ongoing absence of iTunes here etc. I realised that most of my knowledge of these issues is filtered through a US (and to some extent UK) frame of reference. Discovered that the NZ gov't are, in fact, looking to try and decriminalise those of us who rip a legitimately purchased CD onto a hard drive or mp3 player for our own personal use and assume we're not breaking any kind of law: yes, 'format-shifting' is technically illegal here, so keep that iPod / minidisc player etc. hidden from the culture police. They plan to introduce a limited right to make one copy for personal use (gee, thanks) but the recording industry is fighting it and asking that, if the law is amended, the government introduce a levy on blank CDs, iPods etc. to 'compensate' the industry (i.e. to compensate for something that is already happening as a matter of course: go figure). See this Stuff article for more...