UK CD ripping legislation is unlawful and hurts the music industry

The casual copying of CDs has been going on for years, but it is only relatively recently that it was made legal in the UK. It was only in the latter half of 2014 that the UK government passed legislation that permitted the copying and ripping of CDs for personal use. Today the High Court in London said that the government's earlier suggestion that ripping would not harm the music industry is incorrect.

When the legislation was passed last year, representatives of songwriters and musicians appealed. They were not unhappy with the legalization of CD ripping, but at the suggestion that financial harm would not be caused and compensation was not needed. Mr Justice Green said that "the absence of a compensation mechanism is unlawful".

The Judge disagreed that the government's suggestion that the change in law would cause "zero or de minimis harm". He said that a couple of assumptions had been made: firstly, that the government suggested that the legislation would only impact upon duplicate sales and would therefore have very little effect, and secondly that the sale price of CDs already had lost sale revenue factored in.

He said that "the conclusions and inferences which have been drawn from the evidence the Secretary of State has relied upon are simply not warranted or justified by that evidence".

UK Music's chief executive Jo Dipple said:

The high court agreed with us that the government acted unlawfully. It is vitally important that fairness for songwriters, composers and performers is written into the law. My members' music defines this country. It is only right that the government gives us the standard of legislation our music deserves. We want to work with the government so this can be achieved.

It's not yet clear what will happen next. A hearing is due to take place next to determine whether the permitting of personal CD copying should be outlawed again, or if some form of compensation scheme should be set up. It has been suggested that a tax could be applied to blank CDs and other media, and these funds could then be divided between members of the music industry.

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