[A2k] Copying own CDs 'should be legal'

[Malini Aisola]

"It is not the music industry's job to decide consumer rights, says IPPR
A think-tank has called for outdated copyright laws to be rewritten to
take account of new ways people listen to music, watch films and read
books."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6095612.stm

October 29, 2006

Copying own CDs 'should be legal'

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a
"private right to copy". It would decriminalise millions of Britons who
break the law each year by copying their CDs onto music players. Making
copies of CDs and DVDs for personal use would have little impact on
copyright holders, the IPPR argues. Copyright issues have, in the past,
been steered too much by the music industry, the report said.

PUBLIC RESPECT

IPPR deputy director Dr Ian Kearns said: "When it comes to protecting
the interests of copyright holders, the emphasis the music industry has
put on tackling illegal distribution and not prosecuting for personal
copying, is right.

"But it is not the music industry's job to decide what rights consumers
have that is the job of government."

According to research from the National Consumer Council, more than half
of British consumers are infringing copyright law by copying CDs onto
their computers, iPods or other MP3 players.

Report author Kay Withers said: "The idea of all-rights reserved doesn't
make sense for the digital era and it doesn't make sense to have a law
that everyone breaks. To give the IP regime legitimacy it must command
public respect."

Intellectual property laws are currently being reviewed by the government.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has asked chairman Sir Andrew Gowers to report
his findings back ahead of the pre-budget report in November.

The IPPR is hoping to influence this with its report, entitled Public
Innovation: Intellectual property in a digital age.

Its key recommendation is that any policy regarding Intellectual
Property policy should recognise that knowledge is a public resource
first and a private asset second.

SOCIAL GLUE

The so-called knowledge economy is growing fast as the traditional
manufacturing of goods is replaced by more intangible assets.

With it is a growing paradox in which intellectual property is both a
commercial and cultural resource.

Knowledge must, therefore, perform the roles of both commodity and
social glue, both private property and public domain
IPPR report

"The internet offers unprecedented opportunities to share ideas and
content," the report says.

"Knowledge must, therefore, perform the roles of both commodity and
social glue, both private property and public domain," it adds.

The report looks at how Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies -
which restrict the sharing of music or other intellectual property - are
affecting attempts to preserve electronic content.

It argues that the British Library should be given a DRM-free copy of
any new digital work and that libraries should be able to take more than
one copy of digital work.

Ms Withers said: "We charge the British Library as being the collective
memory of the nation and increasingly it has to archive digital content.

"More and more academic journals are delivered digitally but copyright
laws aren't designed to deal with digital content."

She said there was often a conflict between DRM and accessibility
technologies which needs to be addressed.

"Someone with poor sight may use a screen reader technology and may have
to change the format of the content to use it but some DRM technology
isn't sophisticated enought to take this kind of thing into account,"
she said.

The report also calls for the government to reject calls from the UK
music industry to extend the copyright term for sound recording beyond
the current 50 years.

--

Malini Aisola

malini.aisola@cptech.org

www.cptech.org


Consumer Project on Technology

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