CD Ripping Ruled Illegal in UK

[james]

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story ... ourt-rules

"...
Last year the UK finally passed legislation to make the copying and ripping of CDs for personal use legal. After the legislation passed, several groups of rightsholders applied for a judicial review, arguing that the change would cause financial harm to them. (They suggested an alternative: taxing blank CDs and storage devices, sharing the resulting funds among rightsholders.) Now, the UK's High Court issued a ruling that agrees with them: "the decision to introduce section 28B [private copying] in the absence of a compensation mechanism is unlawful." The exceptions in place for private copying are now unlawful, and the UK government will need to amend the legislation if it is to have any meaningful effect.
..."

[Ivor]

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story ... ourt-rules

"...
Last year the UK finally passed legislation to make the copying and ripping of CDs for personal use legal. After the legislation passed, several groups of rightsholders applied for a judicial review, arguing that the change would cause financial harm to them. (They suggested an alternative: taxing blank CDs and storage devices, sharing the resulting funds among rightsholders.) Now, the UK's High Court issued a ruling that agrees with them: "the decision to introduce section 28B [private copying] in the absence of a compensation mechanism is unlawful." The exceptions in place for private copying are now unlawful, and the UK government will need to amend the legislation if it is to have any meaningful effect.
..."

Interesting article James.... I know the course of law runs slowly but for the record companies this is already several years out of date. Those that might have once copied a CD (those pesky kids!) now download directly onto a hard drive/phone or whatever. The rest of us (that would be "mature" consumers) hardly ever copy a CD. All good for the lawyer's back accounts thought and the music business will continue to blame everyone except themselves for their dwindling profits. As you were.

[Rob]

Very strange ruling, I thought copyright law going back to the 1950s (with reel to reel technology) allowed copying purely for personal usage.

[Diapason]

Pretty sure that it's illegal here too, personal use exemptions don't apply.

[Rob]

To the best of my knowledge copyright law tends to extend to commercial exploitation and public diffusion (except for video recording from TV which only allows for time-shifted viewing) - no idea about law here but from the 1956 UK act:

The copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is infringed by any person who, in the United Kingdom, or in any other country to which this section extends, and with-out the licence of the owner of the copyright,
(a) sells, lets for hire, or by way of trade offers or exposes for sale or hire any article, or
(b) by way of trade exhibits any article in public, if to his knowledge the making of the article constituted an infringement of that copyright, or (in the case of an imported article) would have constituted an infringement of that copy-right if the article had been made in the place into which it was imported.
(4) The last preceding subsection shall apply in relation to the distribution of any articles either (a) for purposes of trade, or (b) for other purposes, but to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright in question, as it applies in relation to the sale of an article.
(5) The copyright in a literary, dramatic or musical work is also infringed by any person who permits a place of public entertainment to be used for a performance in public of the work, where the performance constitutes an infringement of the copyright in the work:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/195 ... 074_en.pdf

[Diapason]

The law as it stands also means backing up legally purchased tracks on iTunes is illegal. https://torrentfreak.com/itunes-is-ille ... aw-150805/