Late last year the UK Government legalized copying for private use, a practice which many citizens already believed to be legal.
But now several music industry organizations in the UK have won a judicial review which renders the government's decision to allow copying for personal use unlawful. According to the High Court, there's insufficient evidence to prove that the legislation doesn't hurt musicians and the industry at large.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by chewbacon on Saturday June 20 2015, @03:02PM
No need to repeat the subject. Do it anyway. Citizens need to understand they can only be policed as much as they allow themselves to be. I'm not an anarchist and I don't dislike cops, but cases like this beg the argument.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2015, @03:41PM
I'm not an anarchist, but I do dislike cops, because they have shown themselves to be thugs who will lie to defend one another, and the system refuses to hold them accountable for all but the most heinous and obvious abuses. Even absent these things, distrusting the government by default is the only smart thing to do, because history shows very strongly that power corrupts. Only give a power to the government if it has minimal chances to be abused, doesn't violate any fundamental rights, and is actually effective at whatever it is intended to do, and insist on independent evidence that doesn't rely on government claims.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 21 2015, @06:25PM
Even those "fundamental rights" aren't so clear-cut. I have a fundamental right to live my life without being constantly attacked, harassed, and in fear, I have a fundamental right to not be harmed by others, physically or psychologically, and to not have my reputation destroyed by lies, but you have a fundamental right to say whatever you want - whose rights trump whose here? My right to not be harmed or your right to threaten, abuse, and slander me?
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Monday June 22 2015, @11:59AM
They don't plan to detect piracy, they plan to tax it. They want a tax on blank media that goes directly to them as compensation for the assumed copyright infringement that will take place. Blank CDs, memory cards, USB flash drives, anything that can store music should be assumed to be an instrument of piracy and pay them compensation up front, collected via taxation.
Canada and a few other countries already have something like that. Initially I objected on the grounds that most of the blank media and storage devices I buy are not used for piracy, but then I realized it was actually just a (moral) licence to pirate all day long and not feel in the slightest bit guilty about it.
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