UK Right to Personal Copy Over-turned?

[latepaul]

Several music industry organizations in the UK have won a judicial review which renders the Government's decision to allow copying for personal use unlawful. According to the High Court, there's insufficient evidence to prove that the legislation doesn't hurt musicians and the industry at large.

While the groups are not against private copying exceptions, they disagreed with the Government’s conclusion that the change would cause no financial harm to the music industry.

Instead of keeping copies free, they suggested that a tax should be applied to blank media including blank CDs, hard drives, memory sticks and other blank media. This money would then be shared among rightsholders, a mechanism already operating in other European countries.

Today the High Court largely agreed with the music industry groups.

See here

Whilst the case was brought by bodies in the music industry, and IANAL, I can't see why this wouldn't also apply to other forms of copyrighted material. Indeed in talking about changes the Government website cites ebooks as an example:

The personal copying exception permits you to make copies of media (CDs, ebooks etc) you have bought, for private purposes such as format shifting or backup without infringing copyright

Again IANAL and it's clearly not over. but, if they do revise the law to have some blank media tax then I wonder if it will affect ebooks? Since there isn't really any blank media per se in ereading maybe it would be a tax on ereaders themselves, or on ebooks. Or simply giving the rights holders a slice of the VAT they already collect.

Normally I agree with copyright, but this collection of royalties for storage media and facilities is a scam. These royalty collecting bodies are frequently double or triple dipping, sometimes for legitimate licensing and sometimes to license music for artists that they don't represent.

[Purple Lady]

Will there also be a tax on cellphones or other devices? I would think a lot of music is copied to devices in addition to blank media. .

[Abtacha]

So the UK gets the same "tax" as we here in Germany, what a load of crap.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Abtacha

So the UK gets the same "tax" as we here in Germany, what a load of crap.

No, not yet. The court will decide next month what action should be taken, and any revisions to the law will then need to go through Parliament.

[tompe]

So everybody that have a copy of än ebook are copyright infringers. That is good. Then we will get less arguments against copyright infringements here.

[Pulpmeister]

Let me see. If everyone has to pay shedloads of money on their purchase of discs and other removable media to cover the losses caused by piracy and private copying, surely they've then paid for whatever they have taken from pirate sites, and it's now legal?

"M'lud, my client has paid some $500 in "copying fees" through the government to the industry. Surely any downloads, up to the value of that payment, is not piracy nor illegal copying, but paid for already and hence legal? My client does not have a case to answer."

Sounds like fun.

Oh, and is there likely to be a refund or rebate for those who, like me, use as much as 90 percent of their CDs, DVDs, thumb drives etc for their own material? I have tens of thousands of photos, and countless gigabytes of my own video, on such media as backup.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

So everybody that have a copy of än ebook are copyright infringers. That is good. Then we will get less arguments against copyright infringements here.

No, this is about format-shifting, not copying of digital media. It would only impact someone who created their own ebooks by scanning paper books; I suspect that not many people do that. It will remain legal to make as many copies as you want of ebooks that you've bought, and it will remain illegal to copy an ebook that you haven't bought (unless it's in the public domain, etc etc).

Basically it may be a reversion to the silly situation we had for many years whereby someone was technically breaking the law if they bought a music CD and ripped it to their MP3 player, a position that everyone, government and music industry included, agreed was ridiculous, and for which nobody was ever prosecuted.

It'll be interesting to see what the court decides is the appropriate course of action next month.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

Let me see. If everyone has to pay shedloads of money on their purchase of discs and other removable media to cover the losses caused by piracy and private copying, surely they've then paid for whatever they have taken from pirate sites, and it's now legal?

"M'lud, my client has paid some $500 in "copying fees" through the government to the industry. Surely any downloads, up to the value of that payment, is not piracy nor illegal copying, but paid for already and hence legal? My client does not have a case to answer."

Sounds like fun.

Sounds like a bad lawyer. The new law does not say "buying blank media indemnifies you against copyright infringement" therefore it's not a defence against copyright infringement.

Oh, and is there likely to be a refund or rebate for those who, like me, use as much as 90 percent of their CDs, DVDs, thumb drives etc for their own material? I have tens of thousands of photos, and countless gigabytes of my own video, on such media as backup.

It's a tax. Like all taxes it pays for things we don't all use or benefit from. You don't get a refund for all the roads you don't drive on do you?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Sounds like a bad lawyer. The new law does not say "buying blank media indemnifies you against copyright infringement" therefore it's not a defence against copyright infringement.

What new law? There is no new law. There may perhaps be a change in the law in the future, but it's far from a fait accompli.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What new law?

OK. proposed changes to the law

The whole thing was hypothetical anyway.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, this is about format-shifting, not copying of digital media. It would only impact someone who created their own ebooks by scanning paper books.

Well not according to the argument latepaul did by quoting "The personal copying exception permits you to make copies of media (CDs, ebooks etc) you have bought, for private purposes such as format shifting or backup"

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Well not according to the argument latepaul did by quoting "The personal copying exception permits you to make copies of media (CDs, ebooks etc) you have bought, for private purposes such as format shifting or backup"

Copying physical media such as CDs and DVDs, sure, but making backups of digital data such as ebooks has always been legal. As I said in my previous post, though, the reason that the law was changed is that everyone - the music industry included - considered it ludicrous to have a situation where ripping a CD you'd legally bought to your MP3 player was technically illegal.

[drjenkins]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, this is about format-shifting, not copying of digital media. It would only impact someone who created their own ebooks by scanning paper books; I suspect that not many people do that.

It would also impact people who buy an epub and format-shift to mobi or pdf.
Or vice-versa.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by drjenkins

It would also impact people who buy an epub and format-shift to mobi or pdf.
Or vice-versa.

I would be extremely surprised if the private copying exemption were to be reversed. What's far more likely is that there'll be some kind of compensation arrangement for rights-holders, as already happens in several other EU countries.