UK makes Legal change for personal CD ripping

[DaBees-Knees]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14372698

Soon it will no longer be illegal to rip CDs or DVDs for personal use in the UK. The government is poised to announce the change as it accepts some of the recommendations of the wide-ranging Hargreaves Review of UK copyright law.

The review was intended to identify legislation that has been outdated by technological change.  As well as legalising "format shifting", it also suggested relaxing rules on parody and creating an agency to licence copyrighted content.

Business secretary Vince Cable is set to announce the official response to the Hargreaves Review at a press conference.

The government is widely expected to accept and pledge to implement many parts of the review.

'Not very good law'

Millions of people regularly convert movies on DVDs and music on CDs into a format that they can move around more easily, although most do not realise that it technically illegal.

"The review pointed out that if you have a situation where 90% of your population is doing something, then it's not really a very good law," said Simon Levine, head of the intellectual property and technology group at DLA Piper.

Legalising non-commercial copying for private use would bring the UK into line with many other nations and also meet the "reasonable expectations" of consumers, said the government.

The change would not make it legal to make copies and then share them online.

A little common sense being shown at last.