UK Private Copying Provision Scrapped By High Court

The English High Court has scrapped a provision introduced by the government that would have enabled the public to make private copies of copyright protected material.


In a decision handed down on Friday, July 17, Judge Nicholas Green said it was clear that the exception to copyright should be quashed.


Last month the same judge ruled in favour of industry groups the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), the Musicians’ Union, and UK Music after they challenged the exception, introduced by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) in October last year.


The change, one of several tweaks to the country’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, meant the scrapping of a provision that had made it illegal for purchasers of CDs to transfer their music onto laptops and MP3 players, known as ‘ripping’.


But the organisations argued that as the government failed to provide a compensation mechanism for right owners, the exception would be out of step with EU law.