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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.
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UK's Legalization of CD Ripping is Unlawful, Court Rules
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To be a kind of moral Unix, he touched the hem of Nature's shift.
-- Shelley
(Score: 2) by VortexCortex on Saturday June 20 2015, @10:53PM
Here in 'Murrica we've had a "Pirate" levy on blank media since DAT cassettes and Betamax / VHS.
The assumption is that some percent of blank media sold will be used to "pirate" copyrighted works, and so we essentially pay a tax on the floppies, CDs, DVDs, etc. too. It doesn't go to the artists either.
The way some people see it, if they're already paying for the right to "pirate", might as well "pirate". When I think back on all the additional fees I've paid for when purchasing blank media over the years, it's hard not to imagine how much the media industry owes those of us who don't infringing anyone's copyright.
I can certainly understand those who figure, "Well, if you're going to do the time, might as well do the crime."
Personally, I just support musicians / film makers / gamedevs / etc. directly by (crowd)funding their works. Once the work is paid to be created, they put it out for "free" since the public already paid for it (if they don't do it this "FLOSS" / labor market method, I don't contribute funding). Many local musicians fund albums this way where I live in addition to making money doing performances when not recording.
Also, checkout Jamendo [jamendo.com], Magnatune, [magnatune.com] and more niche groups [youtube.com] which support royalty free / creative commons licenses.
I might not have much of a choice when it comes to purchasing backup media, but otherwise I choose not to support the corrupt artificial scarcity or rent seeking industries.
(Score: 2) by Daiv on Monday June 22 2015, @03:47PM
'Murica only levies CD-A's. Not all blank media and certainly did not and does not levy Betamax or VHS. The levies are on the recording devices as well, not the media, aside from CD-A's.