UK looks to crack down on piracy, free up formats

So i guess the eventual idea of this curve is that all personal content is legal to be used in whatever -private- manner as desired, and hopefully that downloading isn't a problem, though providing the material is a harsh risk. I suppose that makes torrents naff, since you are uploading as you down.

As long as it works like that, it sounds like a good thing to me. Not being able to backup and re-encode your own property is just stupid, so I'm glad they're thinking about relaxing those restrictions. As for the distribution of copywrited material, as long as they're not going to start locking people up for 10 years for ripping off a few mp3's etc, I think it's only fair.

Digital content really needs to come down in price though. I resent having to pay the same price for a lower quality digital copy as for a high quality hard copy.

So in theory, a drive working with 20 4GB chips should blow a single 80GB lump of flash out of the water...

So basically, the entire population is going to prison for up to 10 years, never mind that the prision system is already failing.

Originally Posted by Tulatin
So in theory, a drive working with 20 4GB chips should blow a single 80GB lump of flash out of the water...

Relevance? :)

I think this law will do little. Not everyone knows how to rip DVDs for personal use, but those that do are unaffected by legal reasons. And 10 years for piracy is totally ridiculous. I could murder someone and get a similar sentence. People need to put piracy in perspective, its only money, no-one is actually physically harmed. Maybe the people who copy thousands of DVDs for resale deserve to be locked up, but not the average person who downloads the odd thing once in a while. Another pointless, draconian law if you ask me :(

10 years? far better to go into a music shop and just take what u want - as the Police dont want to know about shoplifters..... geez :?

typical of this govt - corperate crime is seen as worse than murders, manslaughter and everything below

Originally Posted by Confused Fishcake
its only money,

Thats the problem! Sadly in our society money is more value then people. Kill somebody you get 10 years! Lie in your taxes and you go away for 15!

Back on topic: I think its a step in the right direction and will(hopefully) give people more rights how to handle and what to do with there property.

Originally Posted by Sh00ter
10 years? far better to go into a music shop and just take what u want - as the Police dont want to know about shoplifters..... geez :?

typical of this govt - corperate crime is seen as worse than murders, manslaughter and everything below

Hey, you can assault an officer here while watching child porn and get a lesser sentence than some digital violations (DMCA I think, might have been something else though).

Well, the fair use part is a Good Thing at least. But make sure that if you get nicked for piracy over there, make sure you take out the idiot that added on these prison sentences. You'll already be headed away from a while, might as well hang around a bit longer and actually accomplish something in the process.

I was just reading in the news today that a yob who beat a man to death in wales when the guy confronted them about them breaking a window on his car, the murderer got 2 & 1/2 years. So, 2 and a half years for murder or 10 years for piracy. Hooray for common sense.

Screw it. They should just cancel all copywrites. Start afresh.
Would society collapse if it was a free for all?
I'm guessing not, because it already is for those that know how to do it.
And those that know are probably the people that buy the most CD's DVD's and games whilst regularly going to the cinema.

To be honest, it's a step in the right direction. It's giving back certain rights to the end user, who has payed for their music, and at the same time starting to discourage large-scale piracy.

Whatever you think about what's happening to our justice system at the moment, this is a good thing imho. Murderers might get 10 years, but piracy needs a deterrant as well, just like drug-running and robbery.

Originally Posted by _DTM2000_
Digital content really needs to come down in price though. I resent having to pay the same price for a lower quality digital copy as for a high quality hard copy.

I resent not being able to make digital copies/rips of some of my legally purchased CD's because of annoying copy protection. Having said that, i mostly listen to CDs via a dedicated player, but if i used an mp3 portable i'd be well pissed off having to either buy again (iTunes etc) or torrent something i already own just to listen on the go.

Originally Posted by Krikkit
To be honest, it's a step in the right direction. It's giving back certain rights to the end user, who has payed for their music, and at the same time starting to discourage large-scale piracy.

Whatever you think about what's happening to our justice system at the moment, this is a good thing imho. Murderers might get 10 years, but piracy needs a deterrant as well, just like drug-running and robbery.

Somehow no matter how large scale I can't see piracy even close to drug running or robbery!

ok.... lets see here.... i RAMMING a stolen car into a media store destroying it in the process, stealing a ton of stuff into my stolen car, then i get caught..... i bet i can get less than 10 bloody years.

Originally Posted by specofdust
I was just reading in the news today that a yob who beat a man to death in wales when the guy confronted them about them breaking a window on his car, the murderer got 2 & 1/2 years. So, 2 and a half years for murder or 10 years for piracy. Hooray for common sense.

Kind of says it all dont it

meh I will continue doing whatever I want thank you.

Note that is up to 10 years. That would mean that 10 years is the maximum sentence.

I think that you will find that the maximum sentence for murder is over 20 years or something (it is over here in Australia anyway)

Originally Posted by cebla
Note that is up to 10 years. That would mean that 10 years is the maximum sentence.

I think that you will find that the maximum sentence for murder is over 20 years or something (it is over here in Australia anyway)

Maybe so, but the problem is is that our prisons are all overfilled at around 105-110% capacity, and our judges are handing out silly sentences for one of the worst crimes possible to commit. And then we're being told that someone downloading the latest maddona album can under certain circumstances be more worthy of punishment then someone who beats an honest and loving father to death merely because he requested they stop destroying his car.

Frankly, it's bulls**t.

so sending a song or album to a friend will get me 10 years, but murdering someone who's protecting their car will get me 2.5 years?

I have to agree with spec, this is bullsh*t

So, there was already legislation in place,but not content with that legislation coupled with european legislation, the government commisioned the "gower report" costing more time and money to add legislation to the already existing legislation, with the bottom line being you can change the formats, just don't copy anything. On top of all that, they are giving 5 million pounds more money to trading standards to enforce all of this. This is all tax payers money here and when you look around you and see where that money could be better spent. So the question is, who is this expensive legislation supposed to help?

I think it's a good thing myself, as it clearly defines that we we are within our rights to copy our CD's/DVD's to our computer (in whatever format we choose) so long as we do not distribute those copies. Hopefully this means that we'll be able to get legal tools to strip copy protection from protected media.

I'm not going to join the debate about the MediaD/L vs Murder, I agree the sentences involved are stupid, I'm a believer in Capital Punishment (I'm English not American ::Shock:: ). Thats as far as I want to take "This" comment.

My main query is, given the proposial to be able to Remove DRM, copy your onw purchased goods & change the media bought (remove adverts & crap songs from otherwise good albums!), Where does that leave Microsoft, Intel, and the Motherboard makers, who after much preassure from Copyright Lawyers decided to do something.

It's all very well saying "Do what you like..." but what can you do if your Hardware won't let you? What go over here will be different to the US for example, and I very much doubt in todays "Small" world, someone like Microsoft will say,
"OK, the UK have a different policy, so they don't need DRM. We'll give them a different version of the software, that no-one in the US can get."
Within 24hrs of it being released, it'll be on the net, installed on a US machine, and someone will be breaking US law. The said person will claim it's MS's fault for making it easy and the (C)Lawyers will have a field day.

What I'm saying... Is this a case of Poison in the Suger Cube?

Relaxed laws, that we (general public) won't be able to use because of the new Hardware is not allowing us, but Worse punishment for those that do (us Geeks).

It's not going to stop the sharing of Media, whilst CD's are still stupidly over priced, and Companies shell out Stupid Sized £££ Contracts for Over Rated & Under Talented "artists". Why am I going to pay £20 for a plastic disk, when I can get for free, and copy onto the same plastic for 20p.

Imagine if you will, The removal of all Speed Cameras!! Yay!!
BUT
At the same time, all cars are fitted with speed restrictors, meaning you shouldn't be able to speed, so if the cameras were there they'd be pointless anyway.
ALSO
If you happen to "Remove / Bypass" the Restrictor, or Borrow a Car without one, and do get caught speeding, whilst less likely without cameras, you'll get either Life in Prison or the Death Penilty.

Whats that? You're still focused on the "No Speed Cameras" statement? Thats what the government would be hoping for as well.

No one here seems to care about the "Free Copyright Law" proposal, because more than likely, we already D/L stuff for free and have cracked our software to do what we want, and are focused on the "10 Year Stint". However, the general public will be more interested in the "Free to do what I like part." and not see the "10 Years" until the Judge slaps them in the face with it.

(These are my opinions, don't like them, don't read them.)

Interesting point, because most End User Licence agreements and copyright notices specifically say you cannot strip copy protection or make copys , some allow you to make one backup copy (so no legislation needed to make that clear) So if you are right does this mean that many EULs are not enforceable? New legislation anybody? (sorry Icccled I was replying to the previous post from Blademrk)

The problem with digital piracy is the fact that it's an international problem. Fine, this law will do something, but unless everyone gets together and agrees on a common action, piracy will still dominate.

Originally Posted by dragontail
The problem with digital piracy is the fact that it's an international problem. Fine, this law will do something, but unless everyone gets together and agrees on a common action, piracy will still dominate.

True, but one person has to start to try and push the ball before several people can get the ball rolling.

IMO, until the record companies start charging sensible prices for their stuff and embrace new tech to allow us to download any song we want from an album without having to pay £20 for the CD for a few good tracks, there's going to be piracy.

To quote Paul Weller (I think)

The public gets what the public wants.

A good case in point is allofmp3.com.
They were charging less than a dollar for most tracks and you could select any tracks you wanted from any album they had.
They were doing a roaring trade thus proving there's a huge demand for the service.

Now imagine that was legal and advertised....

Piracy would still exist but I doubt it would be anywhere near the same scale... :)

They were charging less than a dollar for most tracks and you could select any tracks you wanted from any album they had.

They still are, reports of their death are greatly exaggerated :p

And yeah, it's $0.03 per MB. So about £15 a gigabyte of music, at any quality. It's got to be the second most popular legal music distribution site(after Itunes) and it's easy to see why. I imagine it'd be even more popular if the record companies still weren't trying to cast doubt over it's legality.

I start thinking about Weird Al - dont downoad this song

It is a good thing that it frees things up a little bit but I suppose that for them to give a little the governents leaders in the riaa or whatever made them take some too. Thats where the possible stiffer sentence came from.

Imagine being in prison for this, "So what are you in for?" "For ripping a cd-err, for ripping a man to pieces."