Uk Gov to drop Website Blocking

This is the best bit of news all year, the thought of a nanny state of copyright police was harking to the nightmare picture of Orwells 1984 coming into reality.

I personally could not see a quango of civil servants or 3rd party paid company getting this right, the amount of sites available that are legal that may get blocked due to some irk not knowing what's good from bad could cause more harm to the fragile economy than not having this.

One of the better parts of the Review into the Digital Economy is that it seems we may not get clarification of Format Shifting and what this is is in basics, buying a CD and Ripping it to MP3 to pop on your MP3 player or in your car etc We have virtually all done this from not only CDs but DVDs to digital to add to your Home Video PC system, to back in the day recording a TV show or film off TV to VCR tape, DVD, CD and now HDD, I can even remember when you used to listen to the charts on the radio and tape to Cassette the tracks.

So in this age it has to be default to be able to purchase music and then "shift" it to another format you have be that ipod, USB Pen for the car, your PC, back to CD, DVD or HDD to allow you to stream music. I feel if the music industry doesn't embrace this then they are loosing out again to those pirates who use P2P to share media. I do not condone the illegal practices of downloading music but feel we need clarification of the laws as technology is moving on at a rapid pace and in theory virtually everyone is likely suspect of illegally shifting media from one format to another in their lifetime, are the Film and Music industry going to take us all to court, in reality no its not practicable or in their best interests.

Full article at BBC News HERE

 

I'm mixed on this stuff.

I feel like we almost have to start treating the internet like a 'box store' a bit more. Actual physical stores wouldn't be able to stay open if they sold black market merchandise...at least not in the US, and at least not easily.

Online sites are able to get away with far more illegal things. Where do you draw the line. I'm not sure I buy into the freedom of putting anything online.

This was interesting. I wonder what the US laws are on that.

 

I agree with you Rikky but having some clarification to what most dont actually think is illegal in say purchasing a MP3 track of a legal vendor like Amazon, Zune and iTunes etc and then popping it on to a USB sick to play on a different PC or in a car is if the letter of the copyright law, it is illegal.

However I agree with your point on it changes nothing as no way in hell where the music companies going to take users to court over doing this as for one they have no way of knowing what you copied the media file to and the amount of court cases would just cripple the system and industry.


@Laura, as far as I know the USA and copyright in the area of format shifting comes under the Fair Use law, but dont quote me on that and a quick search for a Bill or Legal outcome on this has been futile so far, likely the terminology I'm using the the search.

 

I agree with you on taking court time and costs away from serious crimes, the music industry would argue that its serious, but its not loss of life and limb stuff.

With it being up 30% then it shows they are not addressing the core issue of cost and actually promoting they are digital age friendly, if they keep on hiring law companies to threaten users with legal proceedings unless they pay up front fines, then they are never going to win hearts and minds.

Cost is a big one for me, they do have huge costs for some films granted but the costs spiral in wages (bit like footballers demanding £70K a week), but end users suffer in high prices for media and in an age when "ordinary folk" are having to cut back, if the media industries dont do similar in production/wages and in costs to end users of CD/DVD etc then sadly illegal downloading will continue, and if we do have blocks on illegal downloading sites the ones offering downloads will likely go back to traditional methods of physical copying of CD/DVDs.

You are fighting a loosing battle if you dont get rid of the need for a route to getting media freely, never going to stop some for wanting free things but many will pay a fair price is its offered.