Friday, August 14, 2015

UK High Court: Format changes, backups, and private copies are illegal

Ripping music and films illegal again after High Court overturns new law. BBC Newsbeat. 17 Jul 2015.
     The UK government introduced a law, Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations 2014 in October 2014, meaning it was legal to transfer music from one format to another in your home library and to make back-ups for personal use. (It was still illegal to share those copies with friends or family or to sell on that music or data). But that law has been overturned in the UK High Court which affects at least CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, MP3s, and e-books.
The High Court said the government acted unlawfully by introducing an exception to copyright for private copying without fair compensation. The change in the law has implications for teachers who use copyright materials on interactive whiteboards and writers who quote other sources.

The UK just made iTunes illegal. Buster Hein. Cult of Mac. August 6, 2015. 
     In a discussion with the UK Intellectual Property Office, they said “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. It includes creating back-ups without permission from the copyright holder as this necessarily involves an act of copying.” 

[This will likely affect libraries, archives and museums who may receive donations of computers and media; they would need to ensure before processing that there are no copyrighted materials included.]

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