A British Think Tank concluded that people should have the right to copy CDs and DVDs for personal use. They argue that the current copyright laws are outdated, and need to be rewritten.
Copying CDs and DVDs for personal use would have little impact on copyright holders according to the “institute for public policy research” (IPPR). It is useless to criminalize the majority of your customers, if they simply want to transfer a song from a CD they bought to their MP3 player.
IPPR Deputy Director Ian Kearns said:
“Millions of Britons copy CDs onto their home computers breaking copyright laws everyday. British copyright law is out of date with consumer practices and technological progress.”
A recent survey among 2135 British adult consumers shows that most people don’t even know that they are breaking the law. Of all the people that participated in the survey, 55% said that they have ever copied CDs onto other equipment. However, only 19% actually knows that this behavior is illegal.
The IPPR hopes that their report will aid in the construction of more realistic intellectual property laws.
