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Consumer Focus call for end to private copying ban, like, now
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 25 February 2010
Consumer rights people Consumer Focus have again called on the government to do something about private copying rights (or the lack thereof) under British copyright law. As you all surely know, technically speaking it is illegal to make personal back up copies of CDs you legitimately buy, or to rip tracks from your CD onto your PC, or to move tracks from a CD onto an MP3 player (all of which is called ‘format shifting’ by tedious people).
While you all know that, according to a bit of Consumer Focus research, over 80% of people do not. In a survey of 2000 adults, they found just 17% realised that making back up CDs was not technically allowed, while only 15% knew that CD tracks shouldn’t really be copied over to an iPod or similar.
Of course, the lack of a private copying right under British law was discussed during the 2006 Gowers Review of intellectual property rules, and record label trade body the BPI admitted that it couldn’t see a circumstance in which any of its members would sue someone for making private copies of CDs, or moving CD tracks to a PC or iPod, even though in theory the law allowed them to.
So much so, Gowers recommended that the government “introduce a limited private copying exception by 2008 for format shifting for works published after the date that the law comes into effect”. According to the Intellectual Property Office’s website, consultation on that recommendation is expected to be launched in “late 2009”. So that’s something to look forward to.
Even though everyone thinks the current ban on format shifting is insane, the record industry – always on hand should you want to witness some gun-based foot-self-harm – has complicated moves to get a private copying exception made law by saying such format shifting rights should be controlled by a licence applied to devices like PCs or iPods, so that it could only be legally done when music is transferred from a CD to a ‘licenced’ device. The makers of said devices would pay the record industry for the privilege of providing such a licence with their products.
To be fair to the music industry, this licence idea is on the table because in some other countries where format shifting has always been legal, a levy was applied to the sale of blank CDRs and cassettes which was paid to the music industry, as compensation for the private copying most of those disks and tapes would be used for.
As sales of CDRs and cassettes die, there has been talk of adding such a levy to MP3 players – what is often dubbed the ‘iPod tax’ – though such proposals have always been controversial, because MP3 player makers point out that such a levy would have to be paid by all customers, even those whose entire digital music collection had been downloaded from iTunes or another licenced digital music store.
The ‘licence’ proposal put forward by some in the British record industry was an effort to create a more fair levy system. But, as we pointed out at the time, it’s still a clumsy proposal, which misses the point. Here is a chance for the record industry to stand up and say to the world “we think this law is stupid, we all know you make private copies of music you buy on CD, we don’t have a problem with that, so we are having the law changed to protect you guys”.
Instead, if the IPO ever do get round to reviewing this issue again, media reports will read “those cunts in the record industry want to screw even more cash out of us”. The PR benefits of backing a non-conditional private copying exemption far outweigh any money that could be made on a licencing system, which would always be short-lived, given CD sales are in terminal decline.
Anyway, I digress. Consumer Focus want the private copying exemption back on the agenda now, and say that while the silly format shifting ban remains on the statute book it will be hard for the record industry’s other copyright concerns – such as the need for a three-strikes system to combat file-sharing – to be taken seriously.
Consumer Focus’ Jill Johnstone: “The credibility of UK copyright law has fallen through the floor. Millions of consumers are regularly copying CDs or DVDs and are unaware they are breaching copyright law. The world has moved on and reform of copyright law is inevitable, but it’s not going to update itself. If the government wants consumers to respect copyright law they have to stop sitting on their hands and bring the law in line with the real world”.
