CD and DVD Ripping Under Question in the U.K. Soon Might Be Legal

Currently in the U.K., and every other country, if you make a digital copy of your personally owned CD or DVD you are technically breaking the law. It doesn’t matter that you paid for the content and are merely transferring it to your device for mobile enjoyment. It is still illegal. The Government in the U.K. is now looking at the law to potential allow, what they are calling, “format shifting.”

The recent Hargreaves Review of UK copyright law has raised some questions and a few solutions for the ever growing need for mobility.

Simon Levine, Joint Global Head of Intellectual Property and Technology at law firm DLA Piper told the BBC that..

The review pointed out that if you have a situation where 90% of your population is doing something, then it’s not really a very good law.

That’s a very good point. It would still be illegal for file sharing through the web. All this would allow a person to do is not fear a fine or jail time because they wanted to move a CD or DVD to their cellphone.

The only thing that they would need to be figure out after they amend the law is how to allow people to do it. We are all aware of that fabulous DRM protection that is being laced inside some of our favorite discs. That protection feature would need a way to be legally avoided. I’m not sure how well this will all work out but I applaud them for at least taking the time to look into it an recognize that 90% of the population is breaking the law daily to take things portable.

If I could have my way, I would recommend a download link and code inside each DVD and CD. Allowing the purchaser the ability to download the digital copy of their hard copy purchase. How hard would that be?

Source: Coolsmartphone