CD ripping made legal in the UK for personal use

[Qtis]

Everyone knows that copyright is a tricky question and most places have it quite hard on the average consumer with installation limits, always online, copy protection and whatnot. Well, if you're an average consumer over here in Finland, you're allowed to space shift your content as long as you own the content itself i.e. you've purchased it. This is not the norm everywhere, but luckily our friends in the UK can start feeling the liberty of using your media in the format you want:

Changes to bring UK copyright law up to date for the digital age have taken an important step forward today (27 March 2014), as the government publishes the final Exceptions to Copyright regulations for consideration by Parliament.

Copyright law is being changed to allow you to make personal copies of media (CDs, ebooks etc) you have bought, for private purposes such as format shifting or backup.

For example it is not currently legal to copy content that you have bought on a CD onto your MP3 player. The changes will update copyright law to make this legal, as long as you own what you are copying, e.g. a music album, and the copy you make is for your own private use.

Source
Source

While this is not a cure-all for consumers, it's a move to a better direction. Note this is only for personal use. If you sell your original copy/copies, you should delete all copies too.

 

[Clarky]

I thought the law about ripping your CD's in the UK changed a while back?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Huh. Ripping CDs was illegal in the UK? That seems sort of...silly to me. But hey, more power to them for changing that.

 

[Foxi4]

The whole ripping debacle is completely idiotic and detrimental to the music industry. Nobody uses CD players on the go these days and less and less use them at home - they're practically relegated to car use at this point, and even that is changing with the advent of smart on-board computers. Ripping CD's is a basic function of software like Windows Media Player, iTunes and other similar players and it comes to me naturally and logically that if I have the disc then I own its contents and I can put them on whatever piece of storage I want. As long as I don't illegaly share my copies, it should be okay for me to use those discs however I want. Making ripping illegal makes CD's obsolete and useless to the customer, it's really that simple.

 

[DinohScene]

Nobody uses CD players on the go these days and less and less use them at home - they're practically relegated to car use at this point

Eh, I'm seeing more and more headunits with USB/SD/AUX only.
CD are as ancient as Betamax and VHS.

 

[Foxi4]

Eh, I'm seeing more and more headunits with USB/SD/AUX only. CD are as ancient as Betamax and VHS.

Yeah, that's why I said that it's gradually changing as on-board computers and/or radios evolve. For all intents and purposes, CD's are indeed obsolete, but it's still simple enough to manufacture and sell them, so they remain a viable and cheap storage method. Now the trick is to make it legal to "take" the music out of its storage and actually play it.

 

[Fat D]

if I have the disc then I own its contents and I can put them on whatever piece of storage I want.

Well, own the rights to use that content however you want at least. In the context of copyright law, owning the content would also mean being able to distribute copies yourself.
Interestingly, despite that very sound argument that you bought access to the content and have the right to use it, the content mafia industry thinks they are entitled to be compensated for it, which is why many countries that permit private copies charge fees on media and writers.

 

[Flame]

CD? what the fuck is a CD...

sounds like a sex act.

 

[Foxi4]

Well, own the rights to use that content however you want at least. In the context of copyright law, owning the content would also mean being able to distribute copies yourself. Interestingly, despite that very sound argument that you bought access to the content and have the right to use it, the content mafia industry thinks they are entitled to be compensated for it, which is why many countries that permit private copies charge fees on media and writers.

Well yes, obviously I didn't mean that I own the intellectual property that is the song, I meant that I "own" the right to listen to said song because I have an original CD that stores it. This alone should give me the indispensible right to listen to that song by whatever means necessary, and if that means ripping the song off the CD and converting it into an MP3 then so be it - at the end of the day, the song is just data. You're right in saying that being forced to practically re-purchase something that you already own in a different format is unacceptable in this day and age. All media should be legally convertible - I already paid for the media to the media creator by buying the original disc, I don't see a reason why I should pay twice for access to the same media.

 

[FAST6191]

I know it was one of the completely unenforced laws (I am not even aware of a "jaywalking" style usage* of it) but this does set a nice enough precedent.

*amusingly there is no such law in the UK, I almost always forget that when stateside, but for those unaware it is often used as one of those "if they can not get you on the thing they want then they will get you on that".

@ clarky I will have to look it up but you might be recalling time shifting (recording a TV show for later) changing status. Else I think one of the higher up police said "yeah we are not going to feel the collar of anybody that does it".

 

[evandixon]

Now we need to raise the question, when will ripping DVD's be made legal?
(I mean in general, since this is about the UK. Currently in US law, it's illegal to break the encryption without authorization/license.)

 

[DinohScene]

Yeah, that's why I said that it's gradually changing as on-board computers and/or radios evolve. For all intents and purposes, CD's are indeed obsolete, but it's still simple enough to manufacture and sell them, so they remain a viable and cheap storage method. Now the trick is to make it legal to "take" the music out of its storage and actually play it.

And their 3rd party ones as well ;p
Automotive industry is primitive when it comes to car Hi-Fi.
Well, in normal vehicles anyway.
They started integrating CD players into the dashboard.
Well, in newer vehicles they already integrated satnav etc along with it.
But the main source to load music from is still CD indeed.

 

[FAST6191]

Having had the dubious pleasure of digital radio in a car I am not so fussed about being limited to a CD player. Would be nice if I did not have to hack an in aux cable as often as I do though.

Automotive industry is primitive

As the kids might say, fixed.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

I always thought that its legal to download a song from... lets say youtube and use it for personal use.

 

[DinohScene]

Having had the dubious pleasure of digital radio in a car I am not so fussed about being limited to a CD player. Would be nice if I did not have to hack an in aux cable as often as I do though.



As the kids might say, fixed.

Eh, I stick with 90's vehicles.
Old headunit out, new digital USB/SD/AUX headunit in c:
And boomboxes in the back <3

 

[Foxi4]

I always thought that its legal to download a song from... lets say youtube and use it for personal use.

No, it's not. Not unless it's public domain.

 

[Gahars]

So much for stopping Jack the Ripper...

 

[Vipera]

I am not going to give in to the shitty 256kbps mp3 files sold by Amazon or the slightly more decent 320kbps peasantry.

FLAC/AIFF master race. Always. To let this happen, I need my CDs to be ripped.

 

[Bladexdsl]

cd's....people still use them?

 

[kristianity77]

Is it still illegal over here to record off the radio? Man I felt like such a badass when I was younger taping the top 40 and trying to time it correctly so that I never got any of Bruno Brookes voiceovers!