The government of the U.K. wants to turn the nation into a technology and innovation hub, Prime Minister David Cameron announced last November. And to get there, the country took a long look at its intellectual property laws, and decided to make some changes.
First, the government plans to change the law so that it’s no longer illegal to “rip” a CD or DVD for personal use, something many British people have likely been doing routinely, unaware that they were committing a crime. Second, the government is rejecting proposals to block websites that commit copyright infringement. And spoofs, which have sometimes had to be removed due to copyright objections, will have an exemption of their own.
Not everyone is pleased. “It’s for the rights owner to decide how to offer the copy,” commented a representative of the British Video Association, which is against any form of ripping, even for personal use. The association apparently believes that if you’ve bought a DVD, you should buy the iPad or Android version all over again.
Read more at TheNextWeb and FT.com.
