Copyright Law Result: Tonight We’re Going To Legally Burn CDs Like It’s 1999
Disc jockey Gregg Whiteside loads a disc into a compact disc player at WOXR radio station in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 1989. Whiteside says he uses CDs for 95 percent of the music he plays because “the sound is beautifully clean.” LP sales are falling drastically while the compact disc’s popularity is soaring. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Date: 15/02/1989
GOOD news people from the past! You can now burn CDs and DVDs for personal use and no-one is going to send you to a jail to be beaten into a Spam fritter by an inmate with hands so large that each finger has it’s own rib cage!
That’s right; the incredibly up-to-date government has put through some legislation to update copyright law which means, from June 1st, people in the UK will be at their ease when copying music music and media purchased on one device, but intended for use on another.
You won’t be legally allowed to make anyone a compilation CD though, which is probably the only reason you’d actually burn something onto a compact disc.
This news is a bit baffling as people didn’t exactly obey the law in the first place and seeing as people barely bother with CDs, this feels like the government are allowing people to make tapestries of sheet music without getting their collar felt by the law. It feels like they’ll be changing the law on brass rubbings or lending wax cylinders to people next.
“The changes make small but important reforms to UK copyright law and aim to end the current situation where minor and reasonable acts of copying which benefit consumers, society and the economy are unlawful,” said the UK Intellectual Property Office in a statement.
“They also remove a range of unnecessary rules and regulations from the statute book in line with the government’s aim to reduce regulation.”
Consumer Focus, the government-backed watchdog, had their International Director – Jill Johnstone – once say: “The credibility of UK copyright law has fallen through the floor. Millions of consumers are regularly copying CDs or DVDs and are unaware they are breaching copyright law.”
“The world has moved on and reform of copyright law is inevitable, but it’s not going to update itself. If the Government wants consumers to respect copyright law they have to stop sitting on their hands and bring the law in line with the real world.”
Better late than never, possibly.
Posted: 31st, March 2014 | In: Music, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
