-UK High Court Didn’t Allow People to Copy CDs-

[Jaguar]

UK high court has recently quashed regulations to allow people to legally copy CDs and other content for their private use. The court decided that the government was incorrect in deciding not to introduce a compensation scheme for copyright owners who faced losses in result of their copyright being infringed.

The court decision was obtained by the Musicians’ Union, UK Music and the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, who claimed that the new regulations that don’t provide for a compensation scheme would result in £58m annual loss of revenues for rights owners.

When introducing the new regulations, the government said that they would cause almost no harm, which makes compensation unnecessary. However, the court decided that the evidence presented by the government did not justify the claim of “no harm”. The government introduced the changes last October, and prior to that date it was illegal to copy the contents of a CD on to a laptop, smartphone or MP3 player for personal use. The changes read that now making of personal copies was allowed, as long as they were for private use only. Besides, the new regulations stated that only the person who purchased the original copy of the content was legally allowed to copy it, while friends or family weren’t.

However, the court agreed that the case had raised a range of legal issues for British and European law, most of which were ruled in the government’s favor. Apparently, the music industry welcomed the new measures but objected to the lack of a fair compensation scheme to compensate copyright holders for the harm caused. While other EU countries provide appropriate compensation, the British government failed to do so