Copying music legally at the digital age

- Government proposals released on the 8th January plan to make copying music legal.
Government proposes to relax copyright laws.
-Record labels fear changes may bring a mess where all will just borrow off of others and the music industry will have huge losses.
-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 to amend current copyright law.
-Record labels accept that consumers should not be punished for shifting music from one format to another.
-However consumers would not be allowed to sell or give away the original once they had copied it. The National Consumer Council's director of policy , Jill Johnstone, said the current situation was "confusing for consumers and it brings the law into disrepute".
-British Music Rights, which represents composers and songwriters, said any changes to the law must be "tightly drawn".
-Hamish Porter, a partner at law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, said:"There is a danger that it will be interpreted by the young as a green light to burn cds for their friends.”
-Which is bound to happen as if one person buys a cd, their friends are more than likely to borrow and burn the cd.