Piracy is a global issue, with many - if not all - countries struggling to eliminate copyright infringement in their locality.
Yet it seems the UK government has mellowed a little, as its Intellectual Property Office (IPO) publishes the final regulations on the Exceptions to copyright: Guidance for consumers on March 27, for consideration by the Parliament.
Small but significant changes on its copyright law have been put to the table, aiming to keep up with the evolving digital age and to stop considering those minor but reasonable acts of copying that benefit the society in general as unlawful.
"The government has consulted extensively on these changes and on the draft legislation, and listened carefully to the views of a wide range of stakeholders," the IPO says in a statement.
One instance is on personal copies for private use. Making copies of eBooks, movies, music and any other media you purchased for personal use, whether for backup or format shifting, will no longer be considered unlawful or illegal. Take note however, that it remains illegal for you to make copies of these media, which you intend to pass on to your family and friends, right at your home. Passing these media as well to them through cloud storage remains illegal. The IPO said should you decide to give a copy to someone else, any personal copy you created it from should be deleted.
Even the restricted use of quotations from a particular work, except for purposes of news reporting, criticism and review, has been changed, now allowing for roomier quotation use without copyright infringement. The quotation use should be considered fair or of fair dealing, along with the quotation of source also acknowledged. The courts will be the ones to decide whether the quotation use is of fair dealing, but short quotations justifiable by their context have more possibility of being considered fair over the long and unnecessary ones. Said to may benefit on such change in law are academics, authors and even bloggers.
Other changes are in place for caricature, parody or pastiche. Though video remixes have become a shared practice these days through social networking sites, use of such material for the purposes of parody, pastiche or caricature strictly required permission from the rights holder. Such strict requirement can consume time and can be costly, thus hampering the possibility to make satirical and comedy works out of it. The changes in the copyright law now allow for limited use of the copyright material for purposes of parody, pastiche or caricature, less the requirement to get permission from the rights holder.
Removed from the statute book were a number of pointless rules and regulations, as it keeps in line with the aim to reduce regulation as well. The regulations for approval bring about a balance between the reasonable use of copyright material in this day and age and its minimal impact on copyright owners.
Included in the published document for consideration were a series of eight targeted guides explaining about the meaning and impact of these changes for various sectors such as teachers, librarians, researchers, artists, photographers, consumers, rights-holding groups and disability groups. It also elaborates on what the public can and cannot do with the copyright material.
"The majority of uses of copyright materials will continue to require permission from copyright owners, so you should be careful when considering whether you can rely on an exception, and if in doubt you should seek legal advice. Copyright infringement is against the law. Deliberate infringement on a commercial scale may lead to a criminal prosecution, so you should take care when using copyright materials. Further guidance on copyright is available on the Intellectual Property Office website," the IPO again reminds the public.
The drafted regulations will undergo debate in both Houses of Parliament, and if approved, will be enforced on June 1, 2014.
