You’ll once again be breaking the law if you create copies of your own CDs and Dvds. Last year, the government introduced the ‘private Copying exception’, which allowed you to make your own personal copies of content if you’re shifting it from one format to another – for example, ripping an MP3 from a CD you own, to listen to on your phone. However, following a complaint from members of the Music industry, a High Court judge ruled against the private copying exception.

How will it affect you?

In short, it won’t. We’re not qualified to offer legal advice, but no-one is going to kick down your door if you back up your music collection or copy a movie to watch on your tablet. Technically speaking, you will be infringing Copyright Law, but if you keep your activity to the ‘private’ levels that were supposed to be covered by the exception, it’s very unlikely that any music-rights holder will find out, let alone take action against you. And if you prefer to stream music rather than rip it, then the ruling won’t affect you at all.

What do we think?

Sometimes the law is a bit of an ass, and this is a case in point. The limitedcopying exception merely legalised what many of us were already doing, and thrusting it back into the ‘technically illegal’ category won’t change anyone’s behaviour. If you’re already backing up a copy of a song from your laptop to an external hard drive, you’re hardly going to pay to download another version. Indeed, if you buy a track from an online service, they’ll often let you ‘store’ it in the cloud so you can download as you need – which is no different to you copying your own CDs. If the Music Industry wants us to take copyright law seriously and prove that it’s fit for the modern, digital age, it should start by being reasonable – and this law simply isn’t.