IPPR urges Chancellor to decriminalise iPod users

PRESS RELEASE

Quote:

---

Chancellor urged to decriminalise ipod users

29 October 2006

UK copyright law should be changed to include a ‘private right to copy’ that protects users of ipod and other MP3 players, according to a new report published today (Sunday) by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr).

The UK’s current copyright laws mean that millions of Brits break the law each year when they copy their CDs onto their computers.

ippr says that the forthcoming review of Intellectual Property, set up by Chancellor Gordon Brown and chaired by Andrew Gowers, should update the 300-year-old copyright laws to take account of the changes in the way people want to listen to music, watch films and read books.

---

Get more info straight from the horse's mouth.

Although I haven't read the report in full (though I will, it looks like a good read), there is one area they haven't fully considered in their recommendations.

Although they recommend a right to circumvent DRM in works that have passed out of copyright, they do not mention the impact of DRM in the section where they recommend a private right to copy (page 86 para 5).

Clearly this is absolutely critical. Almost all copyrighted DVDs are protected by CSS and many are additionally protected by more modern bad-format techniques. While the technology exists (and is freely available) to circumvent all these measures, it is illegal to do so. Yet if I gain a private right to copy, then surely I must gain a right to crack these protections. This is the only measure that would make sense when considering the millions of protected DVDs that are in private hands right now.

Furthermore, when I make a copy of my CDs or DVDs I don't really want a simple copy, I want to be able to manipulate it by re-encoding it to fit a different format. This means I need access to the raw data. This rules out the possibility of 'managed copies' (ala HDDVD or Blu-Ray) as a means of satisfying my right unless the management systems are sophisticated enough to incorporate such manipulation.

I applaud the IPPR for basing their recommendations on the desires of the people, since that is clearly the fundamental basis for all law. We want to copy works that we own so that we may exercise our property rights as we wish in private, and the current law on this is a scandal. But the whole issue of DRM is still very problematic. Obviously I think all anti-circumvention provisions should simply be revoked, but I doubt that it'll be that simple.

About time to. Most people did this with cassettes to use in the car in th 70's to 90's, its about time that it was recognized that transferring to an mp3 player of a music cd that you have bought should not break any laws. Otherwise they will end up prosecuting a large percentage of the population.