Device interoperability for digital music is illegal in the UK...

I didn't know this, but while reading The Register, an author claimed that ripping music CDs to play songs in an iPod was illegal in the UK. Apparently, this is so... making any copies of a music CD is illegal in the UK (snippet below is from a feature in PC Extreme called "Copy Anything").

I learned something today.

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(excerpt below from "Copy Anything" in PC Extreme)

THE LAW

If anyone at PC Extreme was a lawyer, they'd be off somewhere else earning much more money. However, we do like to keep our readers informed, so we've trawled through the labyrinthine depths of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 on your behalf.

Here's the headline news: in the United Kingdom, making a copy of a music CD in any shape or form is illegal. Yes, even if you bought the CD in the first place, even if it's just for your own use, even if you just want to listen to it in MP3 form on your hard drive.

It's even illegal for you to copy it to tape to listen to in the car. Such acts are an infringement of copyright as the law stands in the UK (take note that the US and Australia have their own guidelines).

Of course, no one has ever been taken to court for using their record collection to create compilation tapes to listen to in the car, but technically this is outlawed.

In the case of computer programs, then backup copies are allowed, provided their are for the original owner's personal use. Whether or not console games constitute computer programs is open to debate, and has yet to be tested in court. DVD movies, however, are the same as CDs, and can't generally be reproduced in any way.

There are one or two exceptions - small extracts of a CD or DVD can be copied for academic use, for review, or for news reporting. This still doesn't allow wholesale reproduction though, even if you aren't going to pass it on to anyone else. It's also allowable for you to tape television and radio shows to watch or listen to at a later time.

If you have a lot of time on your hands and a particular fetish for complicated legal jargon, point your browser at http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/Ukpga_19880048_en_1.htm, where you'll find the CDPA in all its glory. It's due to be reviewed in the very near future - which might be good news for copiers, but is almost certain not to be.