DailyTech - UK Copyright Reform Will Significantly Affect Fair Use

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Internet UK Copyright Reform Will Significantly Affect Fair Use
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - December 21, 2012 11:53 AM

31 comment(s) - last by marvdmartian.. on Dec 27 at 9:02 AM

Reform will make it legal to copy CDs to your iPod

The British government is on a path to significantly overhaul copyright laws within the country. The changes will significantly affect fair use, including the ability to shift content that consumers have purchased from one format to another. The most obvious improvement to UK copyright laws comes in the fact that it will be legal to copy music from a CD to your iPhone for instance.

That sort of copying from one format to another is what the British government is calling format shifting. Changes in the fair use policy within the UK will also grant a copyright exemption allowing copyrighted works to be used in parodies or caricatures.

The British government says, "[It will] allow limited copying on a fair dealing basis which would allow genuine parody, but prohibit copying disguised as parody."

The British government will put the Intellectual Property Office in charge of "clarifying areas where there is confusion or misunderstanding on the scope and application of copyright law."

Another area that copyright reform will affect is education and research where the existing IP laws made it somewhat illegal for teachers to show copyrighted material on interactive whiteboards and via distance learning systems. With the new copyright reforms, this sort of use will be specifically allowed.

Source: Gigaom

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RE: trying to protect falling CD sales

By kyuuketsuki on 12/21/2012 5:15:47 PM , Rating: 2

Uh, the copying CDs to your iPhone was just an example. Calling this a ploy to increase CD sales is just plain not paying attention.

Also, I don't see how paying monthly fees to stream music is somehow worse for the record companies. You never have rights to anything that way, can't resell it, and can't access it if you ever stop giving them money. Seems like a win for them, not for consumers.

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RE: trying to protect falling CD sales

By Mike Acker on 12/23/2012 9:10:51 AM , Rating: 2

for digital music we are seeing a New Model develop . that would be the "Cloud" . In this model you keep "your" music in the "Cloud" and play it from the cloud on any device that you have registered for that purpose . You never have physical possession of your music: only a license to play those titles that are on your access list .

I noticed this starting when i bought an MP3 (shudder) from Amazon; also when I bought a book on a kindle type read agreement .

there are a lot of implications to this: "Big Brother" -- ahhhh make that "Big Data" -- wants to manage your library for you .

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RE: trying to protect falling CD sales

By Mike Acker on 12/23/2012 9:15:46 AM , Rating: 2

put 2+2 together here...... to enforce the "Cloud Model" "Big Data" will need tamper prof play devices . that is not possible when customers take physical possession of their device .

but think: UEFI hold the possibility of detecting whether a device has been tampered with ...

another 2 edge sword

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