“Late last year the UK Government legalized copying for private use, a practice which many citizens already believed to be legal. The UK Intellectual Property Office noted that the changes were ‘in the best interest’ of consumers and that they would bring copyright law into the 21st century,” TorrentFreak reports. “However, the new regulation was short-lived. Fearing a loss of income several music groups objected at the High Court, which subsequently agreed that the new legislation is unlawful.”
“As a result the changes were overturned last month and the previous limitations were reinstated. To find out what the public can and can’t do under the law, TF reached out to the UK Intellectual Property Office, which provided some very clear answers,” TorrentFreak reports. “‘It is now unlawful to make private copies of copyright works you own, without permission from the copyright holder – this includes format shifting from one medium to another,’ a spokesperson informed us.”
“The IPO specifically notes that copying a CD to an MP3 player is not permitted. This means that iTunes’ popular ripping feature, which Apple actively promotes during the software’s installation, is illegal,” TorrentFreak reports. “Also, under the current law iTunes is actively facilitating copyright infringement by promoting their CD-ripping functionality. This means that the company could face significant claims for damages.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sometimes stupidity knows no bounds. UK lawmakers will have to fix this utter nonsense somehow.
I wonder what (or whose) tune these short-sighted UK music groups are singing. The Labels’, or iTunes’.
iTunes offers the opportunity for independent music groups to completely bypass the Labels, saving those groups the Labels’ traditional cut in their profits.
Thus, for lawmakers to mak it difficult for the iTunes ecosystem, doesn’t seem to be in the best interest of the music groups. In fact, exactly the opposite to the original intent in the (now obsolete) music copyright laws.
This is what happens when people vote for a bunch of Etonian chinless wonders.
George Orwell must be laughing his tits off…
=:~)
When government rules are insane, people will just ignore them.
That’s of course your knee-jerk answer: It’s the GOVERNMENT allowed ripping, overturned by the High Court!!!
igroucho, you say that as if the High Court isn’t part of the government.
Ha, Ha…. yep, i guess a little knowledge in the minds of some people can be very dangerous.
not “a little knowledge”, but “little knowledge”
a fine distinction but one to note……
God save the queen from Sweden.
Some people still operate in the dark ages. If you make it unreasonable to own and listen to music, then you will create an entire nation of lawbreakers.
This devalues the the value that people attach to music.
Ultimately, legal or not, the people taking copyright material to profit from or to avoid paying for it were doing it before and will continue to do it now. The people who have paid for stuff, and are just trying to keep it (especially in the case of just backing things up) will be the ones punished by this if companies are stupid enough to try and prosecute individuals for it.
Dinosaurs are not extinct.
They inhabit government legislatures world wide.
Jam the record companies phone lines by ringing them up and asking them for permission every time you want to rip a CD.
I used to think the Brits were smarter than most, but with this stupidity wins the day.
That’s rather a broad statement, Peter. This is akin to the U.S. Supreme Court sending a ruling back to a lower court. MDN’s take is spot on. It’s a difficult subject that needs much thought to get just right. Having said that I wonder if they’ll ever get it right.
I know, but the guys who ruled on it were British and in fact highly accountable British who are put there theoretically because of their “bigger brains” to be able to correctly interpret that job. It turns out not so much. On the other hand politicians everywhere seem to cowardly flip-flop wherever the winds of outrage carry them instead of doing the right thing to begin with.
Not really. The government passed secondary legislation without sufficient authorisation from primary legislation.
Difficult for law makers to bring in sensible laws when unelected judges refuse to accept them for whatever ill judged reason. Not sure what the excuse is on this one but shear madness but then many judges seem to be well versed in that condition.
Actually, if you bother to read articles about this, the decision was a fairly narrow and technical one: the labels objected to the government’s claim that legalized copying would have NO economic impact on the labels.
The labels aren’t against copying, they just want a tax on blank media to be spread around to copyright holders, in some fashion. Apparently, other countries already do this…
Of course, this is entirely unworkable, since few people use writable CDs or DVDs any more. And what would an appropriate tax be in a 4TB drive? Oh which NO copywriter material would be stored…
We had some sort of fee on blank media, including iPods in Canada a decade or so ago for just those reasons. For whatever reason it was lifted. I recall getting a $25 cheque in the mail due to a previous iPod purchase. I had to fill out some form to get the $25 back.
UK: Suckers to the media oligarchy!
UK citizens: Do it anyway. Not that I have any authority. But I do, always have and always will, point out that:
The #1 Rule of Computing and Computer Security is:
MAKE A BACKUP!
If the corporatocrats don’t deal with it, call them what they are: OUT OF TOUCH.
Swindling Parasites. <–That's descriptive of them as well.
And no, there is no sane reason to tax someone for making what is REQUIRED computer user behavior: Making a backup.
It’s not a crime. It’s a data backup!
In practice, this doesn’t change anybody’s behaviour. For instance, in Australia it was technically illegal to record TV broadcasts up until the mid 2000s, but recorders in all shapes and sizes had been available in shops for decades.
Couldn’t Apple then, instead of ripping the CD, offer it free on the iTunes store using iTunes match? But yeah has to be one of the worst decisions ever
This is getting out of hand. When you buy a CD that music is yours to do as you please. One can share it with friends or make a copy fir his car. Come on. A digital copy should be no different!
The music Industry is granted too much power. Now the auto industry is trying to claim the software in auto CPU’s is intellectual property and they are trying to force us into renting our autos from them instead of buting!. Next we will be denied ownership of our toasters, refrigerators and TV’s. This needs to be nipped in the bud! Now!