and its worse in the USA: didnt the RIAA try to get it so that ripping MP3 was copywrite breach?
The US is getting more obtuse about such things by the day--there was recently some discussion about having customs officials having the right to search your laptop.
yup. the would ask you to sign into it, or they would just confiscate it.
they were also imaging the HDDs.
Truecrypt, anyone?
remember, Citizen; Have your Papers out and ready!
I wonder what they would do for music that was under a creative commons license or which I composed.......
"prove it".
normally it makes them very nervous to find files they don't know
They'd ask you "where do have this from?" "what do you need it for?"
"why do you have it?" Why don't you collaborate with us if you have nothing to hide?"
judging by the average security guard, they are not going to recognise .ogg, .FLAC, or .BAT...so save your MP3's, write a .bat to rename them as .oggs, when you want to play them, run the .bat, and huzzah! *** you,RIAA!
or, you know, just *** use .ogg and .flac. smaller, and higher quality 
True, but not everyone knows how to use .bat files. (Me.)
Though, I do like .ogg files.
There's no way that would get ratified with our upcoming president and congress.
There's no way that would get ratified with our upcoming president and congress.
By "our" do you mean the United States? If so, you are very likely wrong.
Yes, the only "our" that matters. 
McCain won't do it. Hillary would. Obama Might. I admit, I know less about Obama than I should. The Senate is not in post 9/11 unilaterality' anymore, so something this big could not slip past them so easily. The house.. Who cares about them. What's your impression?
And that "the only 'our' that matters" remark is why people can't stand Americans.
SO MUCH THIS IT HURTS
And that "the only 'our' that matters" remark is why people can't stand Americans.
..Because of our sense of humor?
So this is all supposed to be secret, or at least kept hush hush and with minimal time on open-doors deliberation. Have any substantial people stepped up acknowledging the ACTA? I looked at the document and it doesn't have 1 name on it.
And score another one for the nanny state!
Remember, every time their power to enact "social programs" is extended, governments take that as permission to extend their power in other areas.
This kind of crap doesn't ride in on the back of social programs -- it's all about "protecting us from terrorists,"
I must be missing something here - how can downloaded music be terrorising us? People would be less likely to use P2P networks if they could find what they want in the music store or on the net. Instead of using so many draconian measures, there is a need to find a way to supply the unmet demand.
It doesnt.
Basically, the US is currently restricting a lot of things, becoming quite draconian, under the guise of "protection from the terrorists". unfortunately, they are doing it wrong. as Gareth said, you just upload an image of the hard drive, and redownload it; or you can get TrueCrypt, and make an invisible partition.
basically, the TSA are a bunch of thieving morons.
It just doesn't make sense though.. Enforcement of that would take lots of $$$, which I don't see the government forking up. I don't see security guards going out of their way to enforce something they don't agree with. Republicans don't like spending, but like to protect business. Dunno bout democrats, but if Republicans would like the idea, the Dem's would oppose it.
At my old office we had several frequently visited computer rules- Don't do porn, open anonymous emails (viruses), or AIM. But the don't do AIM part was a directive of the man, whilest the other rules were for security. Needless to say when it came to enforcement, 1/3 of our computers had AIM. To make things better, a second CEO came along who loved AIM. You think we enforced that rule at all after he came in?
More on the politics, Our government right now is split- Neither party is on the high seat. I don't see anything controversial slipping through cracks. Just as well, the patriot act will be heavily dismantled if the dem's get more control.
Thats just mad!!!
Are they gonna do this???
Oh yeah, also I am sure ripping CDs is legal if you own the CD, or iTunes would be banned surely?
Thats stupid!!!
Why does iTunes let you rip CDs then?
Glad I'm in the UK, I will have to make sure they wont screw with my iPod touch if I go to America, though!