The Great British Tune Robbery
It has been 7 years since Napster's popularity exploded - signaling the begining of the digital music revolution and 5 years since the release of the 1st iPod which pushed the digital music revolution out of the dorm rooms and into the mainstrean. Yet - it is still illegal for a UK resident to rip a CD and copy the tracks to their iPod. This makes criminals out of most UK iPod listeners.
The Institute for Public Policy has issued a report called Intellectual Property in a Digital Age that advocates for a number of changes to the British copyright law including calling for a 'right to copy'. The IPP goes on to recommend an IP Framework that emphasizes knowledge as a public resource over the rights of the IP owner. The key features of this model are:
- Policy developed with appeal to the public interest
- Profits of creativity split between reinvestment and public
- Keep the copryight term at 50 years
- Consumer rights actively defended
- Fair dealing trumps DRM
The
IPPR is hoping to influence the current government review of IP laws
with this report. One would hope that the UK government will put
the interests of the society as a whole above those of the music
industry lobby - hopefully it won't be long before it won't be a crime
to put your favorite CD on your iPod.
More in this BBC article. (Thanks Elias!)