Re: 'Copying music legally in the digital age'

• Owners of digital music players will be acting lawfully when they transfer music from their computer to a digital player or copy a CD for their own use, under proposed amendments to bring copyright law into the digital age
• Consumers who have been technically 'breaking the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988' by copying tracks from CDs to their PC or digital player, or making an extra copy to play in the car, will now be able to do so for private use. Record labels accept that consumers should not be punished for shifting music from one format to another, but some are concerned it will increase the perception that music can be freely copied with impunity.
• The proposals suggest a new exemption for parodies of copyrighted works, while changes for libraries would allow for the copying of broadcasts for preservation purposes. Consumers would not be allowed to sell or give away the original once they had copied it.
• Music Rights, which represents composers and songwriters, said any changes to the law must be "tightly drawn". Legal experts said it made sense to tidy up a law that had been proved impractical and unworkable, but said it could have harmful consequences for a record industry that has been brought to its knees by digital piracy in recent years