3 August 2015Copyright

WIPR survey: Readers call for private copying legalisation

WIPR readers have overwhelmingly backed the legalisation of private copying, despite a UK court quashing such a provision.

Responding to WIPR’s most recent survey, 97% of readers said private copying should be allowed.

In October last year the government introduced the provision, which legalised the transfer of legitimately purchased music from CDs onto other devices such as laptops for personal use.

But it was quashed by the English High Court last month. In a decision handed down on July 17, Judge Nicholas Green said it was clear that the exception should be overturned.

The same judge had ruled in favour of industry groups the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, the Musicians’ Union, and UK Music after they challenged the provision.

They argued that as a compensation mechanism for right owners was not introduced, the exception would be out of step with EU law.

The government will now need to re-draft the provision in order to ensure that right owners are compensated.

Responding to our question of whether private copying should be legalised, readers were strong in their views.

“The suggestion that you cannot, having paid for a piece of music, transfer it on to any format you use personally flies in the face of common sense and risks criminalising vast numbers of legitimate listeners,” said one respondent.

Another said: “The further copyright law drifts from what most people perceive as reasonable, the less likely they are to respect it.”

But others were more cynical and alluded to the fact that many people still ‘ripped’ music even when private copying was illegal.

“This infringement will never be enforced so the change back in the law seems pointless,” a reader said.

This week WIPR asks: “A company claims to have new evidence that the lyrics to ‘Happy Birthday to You’, written before 1893, should not be protected by copyright. Does copyright protection typically last too long?”

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More on this story

Copyright
20 July 2015   The English High Court has scrapped a provision introduced by the government that would have enabled the public to make private copies of copyright protected material.