UK's Legalization of CD Ripping Is Unlawful, Court Rules

Last year the UK finally passed legislation to make the copying and ripping of CDs for personal use legal. After the legislation passed, several groups of rightsholders applied for a judicial review, arguing that the change would cause financial harm to them. (They suggested an alternative: taxing blank CDs and storage devices, sharing the resulting funds among rightsholders.) Now, the UK's High Court issued a ruling that agrees with them: "the decision to introduce section 28B [private copying] in the absence of a compensation mechanism is unlawful." The exceptions in place for private copying are now unlawful, and the UK government will need to amend the legislation if it is to have any meaningful effect.

Comments

1998 called

[spatley]

It wants its controversy back.

God save the queen...

[bra1n]

because we can't rip her to archival media.

Re:And we wonder why music is such crap these days

[ArcadeMan]

What do you think those dual-tape cassette decks my generation grew up with were for?

Quadraphonic audio?