Changes to copyright law will make it a lot easier for cloud music services including Google Music, Amazon Cloud Player and the iTunes in the cloud feature of Apple’s iCloud to launch in the UK. Business Secretary, Vince Cable, will announce the proposals in a speech at the British Library today.
The changes also aim to finally make it legal to copy music and DVDs to your computer or MP3 player. Laughably, it’s still technically illegal to transfer content from its original format to another for personal use, which means anyone who owns an iPod has been a lawbreaker for years. Read on for full details on what the changes will mean to you…
The Government is responding to recommendations put forward in a review of intellectual property law by Professor Ian Hargreaves of the Cardiff School of Journalism earlier this year.
Mr Cable will reveal plans to make it legal to build up personal music and video libraries on home computers and to transfer those files to portable devices like iPods and to cloud storage services.
There will also be provision for sharing copies of music and films you’ve purchased with family members but sharing copyrighted material online will obviously remain illegal.
Mr Cable is also set to put forward proposals to give legal protection to parodies to prevent them from being pulled for copyright infringement. The move would give the UK an equivalent of the “fair use” defence available to spoof creators in the US.
Let us know what you think of the Government’s proposals in the comments. What else should it do to make Britain’s copyright laws fit for the modern world?
Out TBC | £NA | Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
