“Vince Cable, the United Kingdom’s Business secretary, has announced major changes to that country’s copyright law concerning digital media,” iPodNN reports.
“The government will legalize “format shifting,” or allowing consumers to rip content from CDs and DVDs for personal use,” iPodNN reports. “The government will also reverse part of last year’s Digital Enforcement Act, which would have blocked websites for hosting copyrighted material.”
iPodNN reports, Cable said the law needed to change to conform to reasonable expectations of consumers. ‘We’ve got to bring law in line with reality,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
Amen to that Scotty!
A small, but principal victory. There is hope.
Vince Cable, the man who declared war on Murdoch before being kicked off the case. Who’s laughing now, Rupert?
Nice man, and I hope he’s successful.
“‘We’ve got to bring law in line with reality,’ he said.”
Don’t hold your breath for that to happen in the good of US of A! “Wee hang content rustlers around here,” says a spokesman for the US (in)Justice Dept.
The problem is, the content companies here still think they can define “reality” in their own image, rather than dealing with actual reality.
But then, they’re in the entertainment industry, meaning their grasp of “reality” is already tenuous and fictionalized, so I suppose that makes sense. 😉
Congress helped a great deal with that “reality.”
I agree with this only if the rights of the content holders are preserved as well. If I buy a dvd, I should be able to rip it myself or download a rip from a legitimate source, but anyone who has not paid for the content should not. How do you enforce that via a website?
I think current DRM laws here in the US are overboard now, but you can’t just make distributing copies legal either.
Haha Take that Americans
Sanity arrives at last.
A hearty ‘GET BENT!’ to the abusive RIAA and MPAA.
DVD ripping is legal in the US of A … Really?
Format shifting for personal use is good and reasonable. Creating a copy of CD for an iPod is fair use and should not be a criminal act. BUT, allowing someone to host accessible files on websites? That literally robs the producer of that product of legitimate potential revenue. If it is what it sounds like, Mr. Cable has gone too far.
“BUT, allowing someone to host accessible files on websites? That literally robs the producer of that product of legitimate potential revenue. If it is what it sounds like, Mr. Cable has gone too far.”
It doesn’t say that at all.
“The government will also reverse part of last year’s Digital Enforcement Act, which would have blocked websites for hosting copyrighted material.”
The won’t be wasting time by trying to do the impossible because everytime one gets blocked another pops up. Giving the networks the right to throttle consumers download speed or cut them off on the slightest pretext is the thin edge of the wedge.
The problem is that the content industry’s usual blunt hammer approach to solving these problems treats free speech as acceptable collateral damage. How many times have we seen stories of bogus copyright infringement claims taking down legitimate blogs or Facebook pages?
This move accepts the reality that site blocking is an unrealistic solution to the problem.
I’d like to welcome the citizens of the UK in modern times
I was waiting for the first ad hominem attack on the British. You’re late…
I wonder if any of you really see your country this way? (Not attacking, just curious)
Maybe the US should join Britain in modern times, e.g. with greater life expectancy, greater HEALTHY life expectancy, lower infant mortality, greater reported sense of well-being and so on.
Thanks for the offer, but we are far too busy convincing ourselves that everything was better in 1789.
It’s about bloody time some of our archaic laws were changed. Apart from anything else, I can’t say I’ve ever heard of someone being charged for ripping a CD to iTunes.
wow.
how creative are the Brits – even legally!
bravo!
finally people with cojones for the people vs. the corporations. finally a country with guts.
it’s high time civilization is civil @ piracy.
does the entertainment industry not f’g get it. the more they f’k with people the worse piracy gets. a little faith in people pls. but human are too dumb, always reacting out of fear, not Thinking Different, not learning from the past: the U.S. Prohibition era stemmed from killing people’s freedom. piracy is the modern version.
what really proves the stupidity of the industry is that prior to digital music or films, vinyl & cassettes were copied with no restrictions! why the fuss with digital?!
the industry only gets what they deserve. overcharge for entire albums? keep crying Bon Jovi. Apple solved the problem to just buy the song you need or like. no more abuse. as for album or movie prices, they’re so expensive, esp. in recession, that piracy will prevail. lest the industry gets their act together, gets humane.
they’re so brutal they sue exhorbent amounts, even suing little kids.
anyway, i don’t suppose our USA, where Capitalism & Money replace Morals & God, will mimic the UK law anytime soon…
good for you UK.
if only the rest of the world would learn what it means to have any cojones & to understand the meaning of real freedom…