Jump to content

It's now illegal to copy your CD's onto your MP3 player


Day

Recommended Posts

It's now illegal - again - to copy CDs or DVDs you've bought to put onto your MP3 player, your computer or other devices.

The government had introduced a new law in October last year meaning it was legal to transfer music into your home library.

But that law has been overturned in the High Court.

It's after a legal challenge from Basca, the Musicians' Union, and industry representatives UK Music.

It's unclear how the change will be enforced.

Court action was rare under the previous law and the industry often turned a blind eye to people copying data for personal use.

The new ruling, which overturns the Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations 2014, affects CDs, MP3s, DVDs, Blu-rays and e-books.

It means consumers can't technically copy a CD they own and use one version in the car and another at home.

The law brought in last October made it legal to make back-ups for personal use but it always remained an offence to share those copies with friends or family or to sell on that music or data.

The decision does not include joke or parody versions of hit songs.

Read More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/33566933/ripping-music-and-films-illegal-again-after-high-court-overturns-new-law

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 32
  • Created
  • Last Reply

It was always technically illegal to videotape a show to watch later. Back in the days of 'I'll tape it' rather than 'I'll Sky + it'.

The only reason people were allowed to by video recorders at all was because there were always a minority of TV shows that were not copyrighted, that you could videotape, or you might want it to record your own home videos, so you can't stop people from owning the equipment to do that if they want to. But then there's nothing stopping them from videotaping everything.

What's daft though, is that you then started getting those short codes for videotaping things. So although it was still technically illegal, the industry was providing you with tools to do it easier.

Point is, although it's illegal, it probably won't only not be enforced, but the industry will provide tools to help us break this particular law. For example, I put a CD in my Mac the other day, and before I knew what had happened it was all copied to iTunes, I didn't even get a choice in the matter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As usual, the law is about a century behind the times.

How does the Amazon autorip service stand up in all of this? They send you a pre-ripped digital copy of any CD you buy - does this mean they are now illegally distributing copies - or worse - aiding and abetting a criminal act!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As usual, the law is about a century behind the times.

How does the Amazon autorip service stand up in all of this? They send you a pre-ripped digital copy of any CD you buy - does this mean they are now illegally distributing copies - or worse - aiding and abetting a criminal act!

 

For a service like that they would have to get labels permission and a signed documents permitting it to happen.

The only way they can enforce it is DRM. It was legal (before you were allowed to copy music onto your computer) to have DRM software on CDs that CD drives in computers could detect. When the CD was inserted it refused to burn the CD drive, installed software on your computer blocking any copying or in extreme cases it locked the CD drive so you couldn't eject it until you went to a fix shop.

Hope it doesn't go back to those dark days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its a joke is what it is and the authorities will struggle to enforce. There will be a few high profile cases and extremely harsh punishments meted out (chopping off ears perhaps) as a deterent... 

Fact is...the collection agencies like STIM have lost not only a huge amount of income from the drop in physical sales but their very existance as large employment authorities are now under threat... 

Say it quietly..but there are industry " rumours" that even the likes of Spotify dont have clearence on about 3,000,000 tracks in their streaming service.... 

The horse bolted years ago... Labels exist as pretty much house keepers and libraries these days...they have no budget and are tied up in litigation so deep most of us will be old old by the time it all settles down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2nd hand vinyl is where its at... well at least in my house.:thumbsup:

Interesting that lots of people are willing to invest relatively large sums of money collecting records, but then others won't pay 79p for one track. Think the music industry needs to be honest with itself and realise that it's partly its own fault that so many have moved to illegal downloads.

When you hold a vinyl record, it's special. You actually properly look at the artwork on the sleeve and you're more likely to read whatever's inside, and of course taking it out of its sleeve and playing it, it's all part of a ritual. There is no substitute for the real thing - you either but the proper record as released by the record label or you don't get the experience at all.

CDs are a lot more practical but every since the music industry ditched vinyl (for the most part) they've not come up with anything to replace that ritual. It's also all about singles and hit songs these days rather than albums. I know barely anyone who sits through and album from start to finish in the track order the artists intended, and lots of people just download one or two of their favourite songs from an album.

Why would people pay a quid for just 3 minutes of music? Doesn't make sense. There's nothing to the experience apart from the 3 minutes of sound you're paying for, and even then, it's a faff getting that 3 minutes of sound you've paid for to play everywhere you want it to. I think the music industry should be asking itself what's wrong so wrong with their product that people don't actually want to spend a pitiful amount of money on it, rather than putting so much time into upholding purely symbolic laws.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fab post mate and very true. Except in my experience and speaking to alot of managers the streaming services actually help physical sales in some territories. I think its a generation thing in part but I do know in Stockholm (Spotify stronghold) that we have more record stores operating succesfully than London or New York currently..our live sales have increased too...Its a working model the Swedish industry and in some areas is flying... at Bråvalla festival we had our best year ever this year. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have Spotify and I buy vinyls of albums I really like. CDs lack character, the plastic cases and easily scratchable surfaces feels too disposable. 

Thats pretty much me in a nutshell too Shang... Old records from my youth I know what Im looking for but I use Spotify for new music ( love their " like this..try THIS" option although it can be a bit Facebook/Football pages at times... ( FB really doesnt get " soccccer" does it..they keep offering me Leeds and Forarst.... any, I digress... ) and if I really like it and want to own it then out I go to the record store... Most serious bands these days produce vinyl for sale... recently brought the XX, Blur and Mew on vinyl... very nice editions too. Heavy...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've probably averaged around £700-£800 a year on music/merch for each of the last 4 years, supporting independent artists, That includes over £2300 on Pledgemusic, the majority of which has gone towards helping bands who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to make an album get it recorded, mixed, mastered and promoted. (and where bands give 10% of all proceeds above their target to charity)

Yet by law (and you can't argue with law!) I I'm a dirty pirate, killing the music industry.

An industry that regularly used to give even small-ish bands £75k-100k+ budget to make a music video (knowing that most of it would go anywhere but making a video) can't really complain about losing money!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read an interesting statement the other day

In my years so far collecting vinyl and cds I'd have spent nearly £10,000 on Spotify subscriptions, but if I suddenly ended up broke or lost my internet connection, then all that music would be lost. I never owned any of it and that money is gone forever

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...