The SMH report that recording U2 live will be a criminal act soon. Good.
OK, so that's not technically correct. What is actually going on is that good old Phillip Ruddock, that unflagging defender of personal freedom and staunch supporter of sleep deprivation as legitimate interrogation technique, is planning measures which would make recording a performance of a copyrighted work a criminal act. So record a gig on your mobile and get a criminal record. The best bit? Since 'Happy Birthday' is still under copyright, recording the singing of Happy Birthday at your kid's party and subsequently publishing it to, say, your family blog, could get you a quick court appearance resulting in, well - This is Ruddock we're talking about - a spell in the local gulag with the lights on 24 hours a day.
Can someone find out what Ruddock has been shooting up so we can bring it to market? It seems like some seriously whacked-out stuff.
Still, they can keep the bit about banning U2 recordings.