ajthefox Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 Every day millions of portable music player users break the law. Thankfully in Britain at least, the law is about to be dragged into, well, the late 20th century. The country’s business secretary Vince Cable (pictured) has announced the UK government plans to formally legalize “format shifting”: in other words, ripping a CD or DVD so that you can use it on a computer, portable media player or similar device. You know, like virtually everyone who owns an iPod does all the time, and for which nobody is ever taken to court. The wording of the legislation making the change will be designed to make clear this will only be allowed for personal use, and is expected to specifically rule out ripping and then sharing files publicly. That may leave a gray area with the various cloud computing music services that allow users to upload their own files for remote access: it could be questioned whether this technically counts as sharing the file with the service provider. The change follows a frankly ridiculous advertising regulator ruling that forced the manufacturers of a hard-drive based music player to include a notice in advertisements warning that using the device was usually going to be illegal. Funnily enough the likes of Apple didn’t have to do the same. It appears that the UK isn’t alone in, until now, having a situation where both the letter and the implementation of the law are unclear. In the US the closest you can come to a conclusion is that it’s probably technically illegal to rip CDs for personal use, but that attempts to uphold that law against individual users have virtually no chance of succeeding: it’s not an issue that looks likely to trouble the Supreme Court any time soon. There’s probably a case to be made that given the state of Britain’s economy and the extensive changes being made the country’s government in many areas of public policy, it seems a little odd to be dedicating time making a change to the law that will effectively make no practical difference whatsoever. But given its a relatively straightforward and uncomfortable change, I say it’s well worth it just to show that sometimes the law can be vaguely in touch with reality. http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2011/08/03/cd-ripping-to-be-officially-legal-in-uk-at-least/ Not exactly massive news as it won't really change much practically but it seems a little odd to me, it's as if the government are doing this just so it doesn't look like they are fighting a losing battle. I don't know whether thats a good thing or a bad thing as it is a law they just can't and never really have enforced. What I really don't get though is how they can do it. Surely the contents of an album from a band is owned by the band and so they have the copyrights. Surely me making a copy is illegal even if it's just for personal use because it's a breach of copyright?
davieG Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 Aren't they just doing a bit of updating for the newest technology as I'm sure it's already legal to copy from vinyl to tape.
MikeyT Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 I sure hope they dont ban taping off the radio I used to do that with the Top 40 when i was in my teens. Trying to stop the tape just before the DJ spoke.
ozleicester Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 I used to do that with the Top 40 when i was in my teens. Trying to stop the tape just before the DJ spoke. CRIMINAL.... SINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!... Arrest yourself immediately
MikeyT Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 CRIMINAL.... SINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!... Arrest yourself immediately It was like 15/20 years ago.
The Doctor Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 hold on, ripping CD's to your computer was illegal?
ozleicester Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 It was like 15/20 years ago. Oh your just making worse!... no remorse, bragging about it online, avoiding detection for 15 years. Next youll be telling me you've "videoed" TV programs. Have you no shame man??
TheUltimateWinner Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 Microsoft peer pressured me into it every time i use Auto Run
MikeyT Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 Oh your just making worse!... no remorse, bragging about it online, avoiding detection for 15 years. Next youll be telling me you've "videoed" TV programs. Have you no shame man?? Well, actually...
Trav Le Bleu Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 Pretty sure i've seen copyrights that say you can copy for your own personal use. Also most sites that you can buy downloads from "advise" you to back-up anything you buy because if you're file gets damaged somehow, then you'll have to pay for it again. Besides, you're buying the music, not the CD/Vinyl/File.
Yojoe36 Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 Who cares about CD's anymore. It's all about Youtube converters
The Doctor Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 Who cares about CD's anymore. It's all about Youtube converters If you're happy with shit sound quality that is.
Yojoe36 Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 If you're happy with shit sound quality that is. It's not bad at all. As people rip the music from CD's, then upload them. Rip CD > Upload to Youtube > Then people like me convert them in MP3
The Doctor Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 I disagree, the sound quality of a file converted from youtube is noticeably poorer than one ripped from a CD.
Smudge Posted 3 August 2011 Posted 3 August 2011 I disagree, the sound quality of a file converted from youtube is noticeably poorer than one ripped from a CD. You're right Mp3 is about 1/12th the size of a WAV which is about CD quality. Here's a test, rip a CD in mp 3, play it on a CD player then listen to the original; you'll hear massive difference if you have normal hearing.
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