Ripping your CDs is now illegal (again) if you live in the UK
Posted by: winkyincanada on 26 November 2015
No one will ever get prosecuted for this as I'm sure the Police do have more important things to do...
They would, I'm would hope, also differentiate between copies of CD's a person had bought and a hard drive full of music that the "culprit" didn't own themselves on CD ?
I think the last time this discussion occurred there was a suggestion that the case brought by the BPI et al was aimed at, or a precursor to, introducing a levy on storage media for "artist compensation" (as some european countries already do).
I'm unclear from this article whether the govt's stance or reaction makes this less likely, or it remains a possibility.... ?
In the days of cassette tapes, and argument could be made that this was just, as most cassette tapes were used to store copyright audio.
However for hard disks and SSDs, this argument is fundamentally flawed as most are used as general purpose data storage for businesses. The main effect of raising a levy on computer storage will be to act as a tax on businesses that rely on data. This is unlikely to happen.
Raising a levy on CD-R, DVD-R and BD-R is possible, but unlikely to yield significant revenue, and is unlikely for that reason. However, it could be used as a politically expedient solution to 'deal' with the BPI (and others of that larger pressure group); since, with the right publicity they could be pushed into accepting it AND I believe it meets the letter of the law of the EU Copyright Directive (2001/29).
Can this legislation work retrospectively?
I ask because when I put about 600 CDs into iTunes the action was not considered illegal.
If I refrain from any further such storage of newly bought CDs, would this comply with the letter of the new law?
ATB from George
Can this legislation work retrospectively?
I ask because when I put about 600 CDs into iTunes the action was not considered illegal.
If I refrain from any further such storage of newly bought CDs, would this comply with the letter of the new law?
ATB from George
George - good question, perhaps a letter/email to your MP might be appropriate.
Its all a bit of a nonesence - when you read through the civil service published research on this - they concluded levies on physical media was effectively superceded by new technology - and the equivalent would be a levy on internet access and mobile phone subscriptions. Reading between the lines I suspect this was seen as too much of an uphill battle with the public and so the current situation was the least impact outcome - since home copying has been illegal for decades apart from a few years recently and perhaps it appeared that original law and the effective ignoring private home copying infringements has kept most parties happy - and that is why we have in essence appeared to have returned back to it.
Simon
Dear Simon,
Robin Walker is my MP, and he does answer questions posed. I asked one before the General Election, and though he gave an answer that was not in agreement with my view, his forthrightness is to be commended in my view. No doubt such a question would generally be regarded as time wasting, but surely he has a research assistant, who needs something to do between cups of coffee!
ATB from George
Indeed George - I am sure he will refer it to a civil servant to answer on his behalf.
Further research...
It wasn't the BPI who were involved it was a consortium of the BASCA, Musicians' Union, and UK Music.
A suggestion would be for the government to provide a compensation fund (as implemented in many other EU countries), to be administered by one of those parties (UK Music seems appropriate) and anyone who wants to share in that compensation fund needs to pay a fee to that organisation to cover administrative costs. Such an administrative fee would of course be much higher for companies than for individuals.
A further subtlety to this is that under the EU scheme the total amount available within the compensation fund is the prerogative of the government (although it could still be challenged in the courts, but this would put the onus on the plaintiff to prove that the government fund was inadequate, rather than the government having to prove that their statutory instrument was legal and fair, as happened last time.).
Can this legislation work retrospectively?
I ask because when I put about 600 CDs into iTunes the action was not considered illegal.
If I refrain from any further such storage of newly bought CDs, would this comply with the letter of the new law?
ATB from George
George,
Unfortunately it was a Statutory Instrument that was 'struck down'. I believe that, in legal terms, this means that, in effect, it never existed.
The relevant law has always been the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988) as it existed before the (now defunct) Statutory Instrument came into force.
As there is no new law on this, just the previously existing Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988), this makes the situation complicated as that Act isn't fit for purpose in the digital age (it dates from 1988). Many of its provision are ambiguous in respect of digital technology, and there is, as yet, no case law to establish a pragmatic position.
Assuming your iTunes collection is entirely private and not visible to anyone else, I don't believe that what you are doing is in any way morally inappropriate. Furthermore, I believe that, probably, the worst that would happen is that you'd be asked to delete the data as an out of court settlement. Prosecution of a million or more individuals would not be considered to be in the public interest, and the Judiciary would take a very dim view of anyone who attempted this.
Whilst I cannot actually give advice on this, I intend to carry on as I have been doing, pending clarification of the situation. But please do write to your MP as that will both add political pressure and be very informative.