UK and EU Copyright law standing together in harmony


On October 31, the United Kingdom’s new copyright law took effect: The Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003. This new law is intended to harmonize UK law with EU copyright law, particularly Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. According to the UK Patent Office, the new statute is intended to address “certain, largely technical, changes are necessary to bring the 1988 Act into conformity with the Copyright Directive.
However, in a newly-released report, Implementing the European Union Copyright Directive, the Foundation for Information Policy Research finds problems with EU copyright law:

European citizens could find many common activities banned as the EU Copyright Directive becomes law, a new FIPR report reveals. Transferring songs from a copy-protected CD to a Walkman or computer could be illegal, as could watching a DVD on a computer running Linux.

BBC News: Why that mix CD might be illegal

Andrew Raff @andrewraff