UK music industry wins copyright battle against govt

A higher court judge in London has ruled in favour of The Musicians’ Union, UK Music and the British Academy of Songwriters and Composers (BASCA) over an update to the territory’s copyright law.

In October last year, the UK’s intellectual property office allowed people to legally make MP3 or Smartphone copies of CDs they had purchased for personal use – under the Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations 2014 legislation.

In Australia a person is allowed to copy certain types of material that he or she owns for private and domestic use into a different ‘format’. Music is not included in the current law.

However, the new UK law was challenged last November when the three bodies claimed it harmed the music industry. The bodies said the ruling would cost rights holders money and a tax should be applied to blank CDs, USBs and hard drives to offset the predicted £58m lost each year.

According to The Guardian, they suggested the revenue gained should be shared among rights holders similar to current systems in place in Europe.

On Friday, Justice Green stated he agreed with the music industry in his ruling due to lack of evidence to determine the industry wouldn’t be hit hard by the new law.

A further investigation will be conducted before a full decision. Justice Green said he would invite submissions on whether referring to aspects of the case to the European court of justice would be necessary.

Pushpinder Saini, who represents the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has spoken out against the UK industry’s suggestion. He said their case “boils down to an opportunistic attempt to obtain a financial incentive which, if the exception had never ever been introduced, they would certainly never ever have actually received.”